The College Heights Cougars were denied a B.C. banner but there was a silver lining in store for them at the double-A boys volleyball provincial championship Saturday in Langley.
The Cougars claimed the silver medal after losing the championship match 3-1 to the No. 2-ranked Langley Christian Lightning. The Cougars captured the first set 25-19, then dropped the next three 25-22, 25-23, 25-18 to finish second in the 16-team tournament.
To get that far, the Cougars had to win two five-set playoff matches, including their semifinal win Friday over the Pacific Academy Breakers, the top seed. That came after the Cougars defeated the Langley Fundamental Titans, last year’s silver medalists, in the quarterfinal round on Thursday.
“We set our goals to hit the stars and we hit the moon – we did very well that way,” said Cougars head coach Jay Guillet. “We peaked at the right time. That was our only loss at provincials.
“We got up a set and the second and third set were close – if we’d had a break or two we could have been up two or 2-1 – but it wasn’t to be. I’m so proud of the guys, they gave a lot of heart and did everything that was asked of them to prepare for these matches. They slept right, ate right and stuck together as a team. They played hard right to the end.”
Cougars power hitter Ben Shand and setter Graham Walkey were selected as first-team all-stars and, for the second straight year, Cougars veteran Nick Hansen, celebrating his 17th birthday on Saturday, was picked as the tournament’s top libero.
“Ben Shand and Graham Walkey are great players who had a great weekend and both of them are going to go on to college volleyball and for the second year in the row, Nick Hansen wins top libero in provincials and that doesn’t happen very often,” said Guillet. “That was pretty special for him.”
The Cougars got an unexpected bonus later in the tournament when power hitter Nigel Thompson was able to play as a regular in the lineup for College Heights.
Thompson rolled his ankle a week ago at the Cougars basketball team tryouts and wasn’t expected to play at all in Langley.
“We didn’t play him Wednesday and we got into the quarterfinals and he didn’t play much in the first half but things weren’t going as well as we wanted, so I subbed him in and it just created that spark for the team,” said Guillet.
“Nigel said he was fine but I know he wasn’t 100 per cent.”
Five players from the 2011 College Heights senior boys team that finished second in the province in Kelowna and are now living in the Lower Mainland or on Vancouver Island showed up in Langley to cheer on the Cougars and Guillet said that alumni boost helped motivate his players.
For the Grade 12 Cougars – Hansen, Shand, Walkey, Jonah Gilbert, Jared Apolczer, Aiden Smith, Nehemiah Ohori and Nathan Provan – Saturday’s match was the last of their high school careers. Just two players – Grade 11s Quinten Astorino and Evan Guillet – are eligible to return next year.
The Duchess Park Condors lost in straight sets to Langley Fundamental (25-21, 25-23) and finished sixth. Coached by Lee Karpenko and Dan Drezet, the Condors were ranked seventh heading into the tournament.
Condors’ Grade 11 middle blocker Cody Boulding was named a second-team all-star. The Duchess Park roster was made up of 11 Grade 11 players, with only two seniors, Anican Yu and Stephen Jurjevich, which Guillet says bodes well for Duchess Park next season.
Meanwhile, at the triple-A girls provincial championship in Kelowna, the Prince George Polars won their final two matches to finish seventh. Led by tournament all-star power hitter Nicole Watt, the Polars pounded out a 2-1 (22-25, 25-14, 15-12) win over Nanaimo District in Saturday’s seventh-place playoff match.
The Polars were ranked fourth but were missing a couple of key senior veterans to start the tournament. Power hitter Kendal Samuelson did not make the trip. She suffered a concussion when she got hit on the head with a ball during the warm-up for the final of the Thompson Rivers University tournament in late September and did not return. Another Grade 12 starter, middle blocker Kendra Potskin, rolled her ankle last Monday at the end of the Polars last practice before they left for the provincial tournament. Potskin missed the first two days of the tournament but played in Saturday’s final two matches and made a noticeable difference in the win over Nanaimo as a right-side hitter in the first set and at her usual position at middle blocker.
“The girls really deserve a big pat on the back for doing so well, even though they were asked to play different positions,” said PGSS head coach Allan Tong. “Nicole and Micaela Young did really well. Micaela is our setter and she had some nice blocks for somebody of her height, around five-foot-five.”
Samuelson, Potskin, Watt, Young, Emma Crossan and Alex Ntapas, all Grade 12 seniors, wrote the final chapter in their high school careers Saturday on the court in Kelowna.
Tong said his team played its best game Thursday in the first crossover playoff against seventh-ranked Crofton House of Vancouver, which ended in a 3-2 (22-25, 25-19, 25-20, 18-25, 15-12) win for the Polars. The Polars were eliminated from title contention Friday night when they were swept by No. 2 Timberline of Campbell River. Little Flower Academy of Vancouver wrapped up the triple-A title with a 3-0 win over W.L. Seaton of Vernon. Brooks of Powell River defeated Timberline in the bronze-medal match.
The Duchess Park Condors also ended their triple-A provincial tournament on a winning note, defeating Crofton House 2-0 (25-22, 25-15) to finish ninth. The Condors entered the tournament ranked eighth.
• At the double-A girls provincials in Abbotsford, the north central zone champion D.P. Todd Trojans finished 10th. The Trojans lost the battle for ninth place 2-0 (25-19, 25-20) to West Point Grey. MEI of Abbotsford defeated Langley Christian 3-2 in the gold-medal final to win the B.C. title.
