The College Heights Cougars got their scare in the fourth set.
Already trailing the Duchess Park Condors two sets to one in the best-of-five double-A boys volleyball zone final, the defending zone champs were down 13-7 to the Condors and Cougars coach Jay Guillet called a timeout.
In volleyball, the first team to 25 wins the set, as long as there’s a two-point gap, and Guillet did not like what he was seeing. It didn’t help when they broke out of the huddle and College Heights power hitter Ben Shand served one into the net, but the Cougars were unfazed.
Nigel Thompson cranked out a couple of kill-shots, Jonah Gilbert delivered a timely tip and Shand got back to his usual pile-driving ways.
The Cougars reeled off five straight points and won the fourth set 25-19, hanging on to win an epic match, 3-2 (25-21, 22-25, 21-25, 25-19, 15-13).
“Coming into the gym we didn’t expect a fifth set at all, we came here expecting a three-set win, like easy,” said Shand.
“It got a little scary when we were down in the fourth set. Our coaches really helped us in the timeouts that were really key and our key players really got us in the game with good passes and a lot of kills. A couple of our guys have played a few five-setters and we knew what was coming.”
The Cougars successfully defended the zone title they won last year but it sure wasn’t easy. The plucky Condors and their frontliners Cody Boulding, Ryan Hampe and Max Bast had success all match plugging the middle of the court with their blocks and fought to the bitter end. Three successive kills from middle blocker Boulding closed a 14-10 gap in the fifth set and made it a one-point game.
Cougars captain Jared Apolczer finally ended it, pounding the championship point off the Condors block, sending the ball off at an unplayable angle along the sidelines.
“It was a little closer than we wanted it to be and we pulled it out in the end,” said Apolczer. “When they were up 13-7 I knew we could come out of it. Our coach gave us a really good pep talk and told us, ‘It’s now or never guys,’ and we just went out and performed.”
A close zone final will help both teams get ready for what’s ahead of them in two weeks at the double-A provincial tournament in Langley.
“That was a classic final and my credit goes to Duchess Park in how they planned and prepared and got themselves ready to play in a zone final,” said Guillet. “When it was 13-7 we just needed to have that will and desire and go after it. They just had to go out and show themselves what they were capable of doing.
“Nigel came in with a big hit and we got motivated and brought the crowd back into it and we just fed off it from there and kept the momentum going.”
Setter Graham Walkey, the tournament’s most outstanding player, gave the Cougars the edge with his accurate and deceptive passes. All but two of their 11 players are Grade 12 seniors and they knew what to do when Walkey fed them the ball.
“Those guys are mostly Grade 12s and they’re so composed,” said Condors head coach Dan Drezet. “They’ve been around and they’ve played some really high-level volleyball and they’re used to that type of pressure. Hats off to them and to Jay, they stayed composed and rallied and did a very good job. I think that’s going to help them down in provincials and I think it will help us as well.”
Both teams went into the match knowing they’d already qualified for the provincial championship Nov. 29 to Dec. 3. The north central zone has two berths in the 16-team tournament, with the Cougars ranked sixth in the province and the Condors ranked seventh, which means they will play each other in the fifth-to-eighth-place preliminary seeding round.
Boulding, who joined teammates Hampe and Carter Karpenko on the zone all-star team, is looking forward to the challenge of playing College Heights again. Saturday’s match was by far their best of the season against the Cougars.
“Coming into this we’ve lost every single time in two (sets) except last week when we took them to three, so pushing them to 15-13 in the fifth set in the zone final proves we are a competitor in the provincial rankings,” said Boulding.
“They’re a great passing team, they’ve played together since Grade 8 and that’s why they connect like that.”
Shand, Thompson and Cougars libero Nick Hansen also made the all-star team, along with Will Metevier of the third-place D.P. Todd Trojans.
