United Tribes bring out the hitters

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Eight ladies? and five men?s teams met at Brandon University on Nov. 24 and 25 for the United Tribes Volleyball Club?s annual all Native tournament.

Hosted by United Tribes, the tournament was attended by teams from many parts of Manitoba and Saskatchewan, including Winnipeg, Peguis, Norway House, Ebb ?n? Flow and a good showing from southwestern Manitoba.

A high calibre of volleyball was played from the outset. Teams that could execute plays with ballet-like finesse were commonplace and wins were hard earned. In all it proved to be a very exciting tournament.

?Team players seemed very happy with the round robin format that we set up,? said Erla Cyr, co-ordinator of the tournament. ?All of the teams got to play lots of ball and they all felt like they had a fair shot to do well.? Cyr went on to say that her club favors the round robin because there are lots of games and no one goes home eliminated after only a few rounds of play.

The Winnipeg ladies team emerged victorious, after three grueling sets, over the hosting United Tribes ladies with a fifteen to nine score in the final set. The Sioux Valley men beat out the Ochap players of Saskatchewan 25 to 22 in the final set and scoring 50 points in total for the men?s final.

Awarded best setter for the ladies division was Season Gudjohnson. The best hitter award went to Lana King and the MVP went to Belinda Vandenbrecht?all players for the Winnipeg team. All star awards went out to Marj Folster of the NorMan ladies, Lezlie Sinclair of Peguis, Tricia North of Ebb ?n? Flow, Glenda Muswagan of Norway House and Charisse Cyr and Lori Quinn-both of United Tribes.

Awarded best setter for the men was Delvern Poorman of Ochap. Best hitter was Delaney Mason of Sioux Valley and the MVP award went out to Brad Pratt, also of Sioux Valley. All star awards for the men went out to Shawn Alexson, Delvern Poorman and Lyle Delorme of Ochap and Delaney Mason, Brad Pratt and Alex Pratt of Sioux Valley.

?There were some good teams out there,? MVP Pratt said. ?It was a good tournament.?