The College Heights Cougars have been near the top of the provincial boys volleyball charts all season long.
With one final chance to strut their stuff in a Prince George gym and show why they deserve to be the top dogs in the north central double-A zone, the Cougars certainly made the most of it.
They put the hammer down on the Kelly Road Roadrunners Saturday afternoon at Kelly Road, winning a three-set final 25-14, 25-18, 25-19.
In the third set, Grade 12 power hitter Nolan Minck put the exclamation point on a dominating team performance, pounding out five jump serve aces. Dayton O’Neill, the Cougars’ six-foot-five middle blocker, clinched the last two points with a towering block at the net, followed by a crushing kill shot.
“We wanted to show everyone here why we’re ranked second in the province and I think we did a great job showing how athletic we are on the court and how close we are as a group of guys,” said Cougars power hitter Matt Shand, the zone tournament MVP.
“We just had to bring our best.”
O’Neill certainly did that. He casts a long shadow at the net and scored numerous points with his big leaping serve. He’s probably the most improved Cougar and has excelled in the middle since making the switch from the right side last season.
“Dayton had a phenomenal game – that was probably the most consistent offensive game he’s had, he was just dominant, hitting that ball unbelievably hard,” said Cougars head coach Linden Smith. “He grew a lot last year going into Grade 11 and he grew even more this year – he’s six-foot-five with a six-foot-eight wingspan.”
The Cougars will go into the provincial tournament in Langley next Wednesday as the second-ranked team behind the George Elliot Coyotes of Lake Country. George Elliot has been the Cougars’ nemesis all season, beating College Heights in three tournaments, twice in the final. Last season the Cougars beat George Elliot in the provincial quarterfinal round, then lost in the semis to Duchess Park. Two seasons ago, as juniors, the Coyotes lost the season series but eliminated the Cougars at provincials.
“We wanted to show that we really deserve the second-place ranking we currently have and we needed to prove to ourselves that we deserve to be in that top tier,” said Smith. “I definitely want to have another shot at George Elliot and we’ll see them first day in the power pool and hopefully in the playoffs.”
The Grade 12 Cougars – Shand, O’Neill, Minck, setter Zach Ohori and Raphael Rodrigues – have played together five seasons and they also play club volleyball. That cohesiveness on the court has been a big factor in their success this season. They know they’ll have to play even better to bring home a senior boys provincial volleyball banner to College Heights for the first time in the school’s history.
“It means a lot to win with all the guys I’ve been with since Grade 8 – we’ve always been a tight-knit group and it means a lot to come this far,” said O’Neill. “Everyone on this team is best buds and the thing I like best is even in the toughest situations we always come back to each other and we can always rely on each other to make everyone else feel good.”
The Roadrunners had to gut out a tough five-set semifinal to eliminate the D.P. Todd Trojans and claim the other north central berth for the provincial tournament. With four north central double-A teams ranked in the top-12 in last week’s provincial poll, it was difficult just getting out of the zone. The Roadrunners rallied around their veteran core – seniors Caleb Gurney, JT Laxdal, Ben Hirtz, Greyam Heppner and Grade 11 setter Koen Heitman – to stop the Trojans (who were ranked sixth in the province) and earn the right to play for the zone title on their home court.
“Honestly, it was the best game we’ve played, we all just played our hearts out and it was so much fun to play,” said Heppner. “It was nice to win at Kelly Road, it’s our home and (the final was) our last game here. I’m really excited to play at provincials, we deserve to go down there. I’m predicting we’ll be in the top five.”
D.P. Todd played College Heights Saturday morning and won the first set, which added to the intrigue of the Roadrunner-Trojan semi. “I was pretty worried because they were playing pretty well but we were pretty consistent and our serve was pretty consistent,” said Roadrunners coach Todd Kuc.
“They are very tall, so trying to hit through them like we have in the past hasn’t been very successful so we got a bit smarter and hit into the holes and hit some roll shots if there was a really big block. Our boys were not only playing hard but were playing smart.”
For the Kelly Road senior boys, it will be their first trip to the B.C. championship in five years, when they were a triple-A team.
“It’s a very strong zone and we’re just happy we made it out and get to go to provincials,” said Kuc.
• In the three-team double-A girls zone championship at D.P. Todd, the Kelly Road Roadrunners defeated the host Trojans 25-14, 25-23, 25-22 in Saturday’s final. The Roadrunners claimed the lone north central berth in provincials, which start Nov. 28 in Burnaby. The Trojans advanced directly to the zone championship match with wins over Nechako Valley and D.P. Todd.
“We had a bye to the finals and D.P. Todd had to play an extra game, so I guess they were already a bit tired and we beat them in three sets,” said Kelly Road libero Kaia Bjorklund. “Lately we’ve just been keeping a good attitude and I think that’s one of the main reasons why we won against D.P. Todd, just keeping our composure in our games and improving our mental game.
“It will be lots of fun at provincials and I’m really excited.”
• Meanwhile, at the triple-A girls zone championship in Dawson Creek, the College Heights Cougars were repeat winners of the north central zone banner Saturday, after a 3-0 (25-23, 25-15, 26-24) victory over the Dawson Creek Coyotes in the final Saturday.
The Cougars advanced after beating the Prince George Polars 3-1 (25-17, 24-26, 25-19, 25-17) in the semifinal round.
College Heights advanced to the triple-A provincials in Powell River, Nov. 28-30.
• The Cedars Christian Eagles of Prince George will host the 16-team single-A boys provincial tournament starting on Thursday at the College of New Caledonia.
