If the old saying is true that whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger, the Duchess Park Condors will soon be thanking the College Heights Cougars for the scare they put into them in the best-of-five North Central zone triple-A girls volleyball championship.
The Condors got themselves into a comfortable groove Saturday afternoon in a noisy College of New Caledonia gym, knowing both they and the Cougars had already guaranteed berths in the provincial championship as the top two ranked teams in B.C.
But volleyball is often a game of wild swings in momentum and after rolling to relatively easy 25-19, 25-21 set victories over College Heights, the Condors had trouble putting the Cougars away in the third set.
Katherine Chrobot, a Grade 12 College Heights veteran, took her spot behind the serve line and went to town, serving up four aces and catching the Condors off-balance to force a series of weak returns. By the time they got the ball out of Chrobot's hands, the Condors trailed 9-0. Chrobot came back with one more ace before the set ended with College Heights winning 25-14.
But the lights came back on the Condors court in the fourth set and one of the brightest of the bunch, Grade 12 power hitter Brooke Unger, got back to what made her so effective in the first two sets. The Tasmanian devil in Unger returned as she got her timing back at the net to put up blocks and spit back venomous spikes and well-placed volleys which found the hardwood. The Cougars won the clincher 25-11.
"It just feels awesome, we played in the same tournament last year and played College Heights in the final and unfortunately we lost but this year it was a different outcome," said the 17-year-old Unger. "We just can't take them for granted, sometimes we get too high on ourselves and think we can beat them easily, but we can't, so we just always have to remember to push."
Clara Temoin set the tone for the Condors in the backcourt, digging up a seemingly limitless supply of defensive gems. Also fuelling the championship drive were Ayden Martin, Sydney Davies, Izzy Zimmerman and Nikita Kovacevic, who formed the front line walls and put down points, while setter Hallie Drezet played virtually mistake-free volleyball as the tournament MVP.
"We know we're great passers and we just had to get out of the rut and we were fine in the fourth set," said Drezet, whose mom, Kim Forrest, is head coach of the Condors. "We have incredible defence."
Saturday's match marked the ninth time the Cougars and Condors played each other this season and Duchess has now won eight of those matches. It wasn't for lack of trying that College Heights came up short again. Setter Chelsea Madsen was good when she had to be, Brittany Briere did whatever she could to bail out her team by keeping balls alive and Chrobot, Jynessa Caulback, Megan Warner and Kaitlyn Seath did their jobs spicing the Cougar offence. But on this day they were unable to match the Condors' finishing touches.
"We played as hard as we could, obviously some things didn't go our way and we almost folded in on ourselves but we're gunning for them again, so watch out, we're coming" said Chrobot.
"A lot of people say it's surprising for Prince George to have the top two ranked teams but honestly we have so much talent here in the city and obviously College Heights and Duchess have earned ever bit of it and I have no doubt we're going to do good in provincials."
A teary-eyed Drezet celebrated her last high school volleyball game with her teammates, knowing there the Condors are getting closer to their goal of improving on their fourth-place finish at last year's provincial tournament.
"This means a lot, we've worked really hard from the beginning not thinking we were going to be as good as we are," said Drezet, who along with Unger are the only Condors who played on the senior team last year.
"We just wanted to have a fun year and being ranked Number 1 in the province now is just the highlight of it all. Everyone always underestimates us and we want to prove (at the provincial tournament) that we actually know what we're doing up here."
