For the first time since 2020, there was a tournament to crown the best volleyball teams in the NWT and it ended up being a weekend which featured some really good action.

The NWT Volleyball Championships returned to Weledeh and St. Pat鈥檚 gymnasiums over the Feb. 11-12 weekend with 12 women鈥檚 teams and six men鈥檚 teams battling it out for the right to be called the best. In the end, Yk Blue came out on top in the men鈥檚 final on Sunday afternoon, while JBTMBCDR of Yellowknife captured the women鈥檚 title.

Yk Blue kept up its string of making it to the final and also kept up the streak of defeating Frosted Tips of Yellowknife in the final. This year鈥檚 best-of-five decider went four sets with the champs prevailing, 3-1. The two sides split the first and second sets before Yk Blue won the third and eventually the fourth to claim victory.

Mike Mathison played with the champs and said winning the third set was a big key to victory.

鈥淭he comfort level certainly went up, for sure,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e in the situation where you have a set to play with, and you know the other team has all the pressure to get the fourth set to stay in it. That being said, we wanted to get it over with and not give them a chance to get the momentum back.鈥�

The final was a reversal of the round-robin meeting between the two teams 鈥� Frosted Tips won two straight in the best-of-three contest.

Once Mathison was done with the business of the men鈥檚 final, he put on his coach鈥檚 hat to lead the Crush 18U girls outfit into battle against JBTMBCDR in the best-of-five women鈥檚 final. Crush won the first set, but JBTMBCDR took sets two and three to put Crush on the back heel. A comeback win for Crush in the fourth set meant a fifth-set tiebreak and a race to 15, which JBTMBCDR ended up winning to take the title.

鈥淭hey got on a good serving streak in the fifth,鈥� said Mathison. 鈥淚t鈥檚 tough when that happens and you can鈥檛 find a way to break it, but it was a really good final.鈥�

As happened on the men鈥檚 side, the Crush were the superior team when they met JBTMBCDR in round-robin action, but Mathison said their opponent certainly improved from that first meeting.

鈥淭hey were serving better, their defence was better and I think we ran out of gas a bit,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t would have been the same for them, so that鈥檚 not an excuse, but they were the better team in the end.鈥�

In addition to the teams from Yellowknife, there were entries from Behchoko, Whati, Deline, Fort Smith and Rankin Inlet.

Mathison said it was a great weekend of volleyball.

鈥淲e always look forward to it,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 get a chance to play a lot of men鈥檚 volleyball. We tried to have a men鈥檚 division at the (2021) Crush Open, but it didn鈥檛 happen. I think everyone just enjoyed the chance to get back out on the court and play a territorial championship again.鈥�