PHILIPSBURG—Learning Unlimited (LU) Girls defeated MPC Girls in a gripping best-of-three showdown on Wednesday as the 9th Annual SIMVA High School Volleyball Tournament wrapped up in the L.B. Scott Auditorium.
In see-saw matches where scores could go either way in the blink of an eye, LU took the first match 26-24 against MPC but MPC rebounded to clinch the next match 25-21. The deciding set saw LU triumph, edging past MPC 15-13.
Spectators and supporters went wild, as they did on every single point, which no doubt spurred the players on. In the Boys matches afterwards, MPC Boys defeated LU Boys, two sets to zero. MPC, with their height advantage, won the first set 25-10, but had to work hard in the second set, winning only by two points, 25-23.
“This is our seventh year of participating in the tournament and the first time we have won it,” said a jubilant LU Girls Coach Dimitri Beauperthuy. “MPC and SXM Academy have always been the dominating teams. We’ve had a lot of second and third place finishes. We have a young team; our oldest player is in eleventh grade and she will come back next year and Victoria who served at the end of the set is in sixth grade. It was a heck of a fight. We’ve been playing MPC all season and it wouldn’t have been so special if we didn’t have that last deciding set.”
SIMVA President Leonardo Jeffers noted the absence of St. Maarten Academy who have been defending champs for several years. Had they participated, the outcome might have been different.
“They were unable to participate due to the damage to the school from the hurricane and because of the change in school hours that didn’t make it possible for them to train, Jeffers explained. But the result of this tournament is not so surprising. These are two schools that are more involved in Volleyball on a regular basis and when they get the most out of training, they usually go on to win.”
Seven teams, four boys and three girl’s teams, contested the tournament. The girl’s teams came from Learning Unlimited, MPC and Sundial School and the boy’s team from MPC, LU, CIA and Sundial.
The awards ceremony will not take place until the beginning of the senior season in September.
