Cochrane High Athletes have collected their third and fourth banners less than three months into the school year when both their senior girls and boys volleyball team won the Rocky View Sports Division finals on their home court, Nov. 8.

The senior girls were able to take out the Chestermere Cowboys three sets straight to claim their banner. For the boys, it took the full five sets against the Springbank Phoenix and even then it was a 15-13 final that determined the winner.

The senior girls have only lost two sets in their stellar season and remain undefeated in their matchups leading into the zone finals, Nov. 17-18 in Canmore. For the Cowboys, their only blemish on the season was their matchups against the Cobras.

Chestermere was having trouble with their passing early in the match but as that improved they came on strong by the third but it was not enough to overcome the Cobras. The powerhouse Cobras were heavily favoured to win.

"It's never a guarantee, but we had a strategy going in and everybody played with a lot of intensity and they executed the plan and usually when you put those two things together it turns out well," says head coach Mike Sieben.

The Cobras coaches named Taylor Clemett player of the game.

The team is taking off the weekend and will resume practices on Monday in preparations for the zone finals.

Despite their perfect match record in Rocky View Sports play, it's had it share of challenges for the boys team.

"It's been a good season," says head coach Doug Jensen. "We went undefeated in the league but it hasn't been without our obstacles."

The Cobras had easily beaten Springbank in the season opener in straight sets but they had their eye on them and were expecting a tough matchup in the playoffs.

"We knew it wasn't going to be a walk over like it was early in the season, we knew we had to battle and we mentally prepared for that," expains Jensen. "We had talked about that in previous games that they were going to be tough to play against and we came out and play tough. There were some situations where they could have just folded and say this game has gotten away from us, but we didn't do that tonight. That's been one of our struggles this year, so it's really rewarding to see that at the end of the year when its all on the line and it counts and they pull through."

Springbank took the first set and the Cobras claimed the next two. Springbank pulled through in the fourth, setting up the 15-point final set. 

Leading up to the final the boys team had a tough weekend in a Strathmore tournament and lost to both Strathmore and Springbank.

"Maybe it was a good thing we didn't have a good weekend so we could light the fire and get refocused for the upcoming playoff run," says Jensen.

Anything could happen in the zones being hosted by Airdrie's George McDougall High, although traditionally the tough teams faced by the Cobras are the host team, Strathmore and Springbank.

"Of those four teams, anybody could be zone champions next weekend," says Jensen.