In front of family and friends, the Rouleau Rebels put together a stellar weekend as they won the 1A Boys Volleyball Provincial Championship on their home court on Saturday.

The Rebels knocked off the Bellevue/Vonda Tropics in a back-and-forth three-set battle (25-20, 17-25, 19-17) in the provincial final.

“It was a weekend of a roller coaster of emotions,” said Rebels head coach Mitch Singleton.

In the final, the Rebels had their backs against the wall a number of times during the third set, but found a way to pull out the win and capture the championship.  Singleton said the team showed a lot of heart to find a way to win.

“We were down 12-6 then 13-8 and we caught back up to tie it at 13-13, but missed our serve and three times, we were getting served at on match point and got the kill all three times (to stay alive),” he said.

The weekend started auspiciously for the Rebels as they fell behind 9-0 in the first set of their opening game against Mossbank.  Rouleau battled back to win that set and the match in three sets.

The Rebels fell in three sets to Medstead in their next game and then dropped a two-set game to Middle Lake.  They closed out the round robin on Saturday on a winning note with a three-set win over Annaheim, which clinched them a spot in the playoff round.

Rouleau cruised past Edem in two sets in the quarterfinal and then topped Vanguard in three sets in the semifinal.

Singleton said that getting to play the whole playoff round at their home gym was a huge part of their success on Saturday.

“That’s what won it, we all agreed that if we were in any other gym, we wouldn’t have been able to pull it off,” he said.  “We had kindergarten to grade 12 there, alumni came out to cheer us on, it was incredible, we’d make a serve, block a ball or dig a ball and they’d blow the roof off the place.”

The Rebels will graduate three players from this year’s team, but return their three grade 10s that were a part of this year’s starting lineup and they also had three grade 11s.