In a bit of a copy-and-paste effort, the Fox Valley Legends Senior Girls volleyball team's season ended in identical fashion to their 2017 campaign.

For the second-straight season, Fox Valley earned a bronze medal serving as hosts of SHSAA 1A Girls Provincials. 

However, the quest for back-to-back provincial medals nearly wasn't even a possibility for the team.

"Like many other small towns, we battle numbers," said Fox Valley's Assistant Coach and Principal, Pat Wilde. "This was one of those years where we didn't even know if we would have a senior girls' program, because we only had five girls in the high school to play. So, we went down and we got two grade nines that agreed to come and play with us so we had a team. We really were absolutely thrilled to earn our way to provincials, and to be able to place a bronze, we're just very proud of our kids." 

Fox Valley opened their round robin schedule with a pair of wins and losses.

They swept Borden in straight sets, and handed Arcola the same fate. However, the Legends then fell in three sets to Chief Paskwa, before closing the round robin with a two-set loss to Englefeld.

Fox Valley was one of three teams in Pool A to finish .500, joining Chief Paskwa and Borden.

However, their 5-4 sets record allowed for a second-place finish, and a higher seed ahead of the quarter-finals.

"I feel we played very, very well in our first two matches, and then I think our emotions got a little bit too much for the girls to handle in the third match and we lost it," admitted Wilde. "In terms of the three times tied at 2-2, it was very close."

The Legends then worked a three-set win over Gravelbourg's Ecole Mathieu in the quarter-finals, before falling at the hands of the eventual, and now back-to-back provincial-champions from Rose Valley in a straight-sets semi-final.

That set up a bronze medal match against Vonda's Ecole Providence in what Wilde described as an electric, jam-packed home gym.

"Vonda came with a lot of fans as well, and then we probably had, I'd say over 100 fans in our building as well," she said. "So it was absolutely loud with cheering - cheering on both sides for both teams, and the play. They were very evenly-matched teams, and it was really good, hard-fought volleyball all the way through from point one in the first set all the way through to the end."

Though Fox Valley won in straight sets, they were nail-biters, as the Legends came out on top with 26-24, and 25-23 efforts to earn the bronze.

"I don't know - if I had to turn around and play them again today, the verdict would be really up in the air, as to what the result would be," Wilde admitted. "They had strong defence, they played hard, they fought and it was the same kind of game that we played, because that's what we do as well."

The lone difference in the game might have been the proximity to home for the Legends.

"I do believe our home-court advantage was probably the difference-maker. Seeing our parents and our fans, and just having everybody's support just made all the difference in the world for our kids."

"When you're young like we are - we only had one grade 12 - some of these kids had never been through an experience like this before. So, just being able to do that in your home gym in an environment you're familiar with, with all of these faces, was just huge."

As one might expect with such a narrow margin of victory for a Provincial bronze medal, the celebration after the twenty-fifth point of the second set was an emotional one.

"Our kids were in tears when it was over. It's really an emotional time for them, and they're so nervous as it is. To have to fight for every point right to the end, the victory was so sweet, because they held it together, and they were able to reach their goal. They certainly did - they achieved everything we could have ever imagined for them."

Looking ahead to the 2019 high school volleyball season, and certainly beyond, Fox Valley looks to push forward with a youth movement, as they attempt to climb up the medal standings to silver or gold.

"That's certainly a goal of ours - when we do take a look, we have a number of very talented grade nines coming up. Only losing the one (grade 12), we really feel that we have an opportunity to maintain this level of volleyball and improve, and we're really hoping that another gold medal could be in the works in the future."

Fox Valley now graduates Laura Wilde, but is set to return the following in 2019 and beyond:

Grade 11: Dawson Eckart-Bowyer, Jaiden Lehmann, Shelby Hudec
Grade 10: Maddie Jacksteit
Grade 9: Tyra Grant, Olivia Hudec (Haley Wagner and Mikayla Herter were added for provincials)