With the Lo-Ellen Park Knights looming close to mounting a serious challenge, Lockerby Vikings' setter Brooke Smith knew just where to turn.
"I go by a saying, "if you're down by four, you've got to score" - that's a little thing I have," said the 17-year-old grade 12 senior following a four-set win over the Knights last week. "Lexi (Johnson) was getting it, so we just keep feeding her, or anyone, whoever is hitting."
"If they're not being stopped, there's no reason to stop setting them. If they're on fire, then just go for it." In this particular case, Johnson hammered three or four balls in rapid succession to the floor, allowing the Vikings to pull away with a 25-16, 25-12, 22-25, 25-20 win.
A somewhat undersized team, to begin with, Lo-Ellen had truthfully no really good answer to the 6'2" hard-hitting Lockerby right side attacker, as Johnson drilled balls both cross-court and down the line in the critical fourth set.
With Taylor Wilkinson the only key graduate from the Vikings' team who made a return trip to OFSAA last March, expectations are running high for coach Stephen Beausoleil and his crew.
"We're trying to pick up from last year, really working on our offense, and our defense, trying to get new girls into the system that we've been working on, especially those of us who have been playing together for the last three years," Smith said.
Led by a veteran troika that includes Smith, Johnson and well as left-side Kayla Murray, the Lockerby girls improved their league record to 2-0 with their win over Lo-Ellen.
"We had some really long breaks, so you have to really motivate yourself after you've been off for a few hours, but I thought we did really well," said Smith.
Benefiting both from her high school experience and several years spent with the Northern Chill Volleyball Club, Smith has reached a point where the knack of knowing when to look for familiar faces is now somewhat intrinsic.
"A lot depends on the pass," she noted. "If the pass is kind of off, I know I need to go to my stronger hitters because I'm running and they need to be able to adjust to that."
Both Lockerby and Lo-Ellen will be back in action this weekend, as the 12 team senior field taking part in the St Charles College Cardinal Classic. A solid local contingent is joined by Englehart, Algonquin (North Bay) and Superior Heights from Sault Ste Marie.
