The College Heights Cougars have fallen short of accomplishing their high school volleyball mission
Ranked fifth at the double-A boys provincial championship, the Cougars were left stranded on the court Thursday in Kelowna, out of reach of the medal round, when they lost a quarterfinal playoff match 3-0 (27-25, 27-25 25-18) to the third-ranked Clarence Fulton Maroons of Vernon.
"It was tough, we were up 19-14 in the first set, but hats off to Fulton, they came back with some strong serving," said Cougars head coach Jay Guillet.
"We fell short in our execution. We needed to put a few balls down when we had those opportunities."
College Heights started the day with a 3-0 (25-16, 25-14, 25-20) victory over Lambrick Park of Victoria in the round of 16. The Cougars now drop down into the placement round with their next game today at 11:30 a.m. They will need two match victories to finish fifth.
The 10th-ranked D.P. Todd Trojans, the other Prince George team in the double-A boys tournament, lost a hard-fought playoff match 2-1 (25-17, 33-31, 25-22, 25-19) to Langley Fundamental for the right to play in the quarterfinals.
The Trojans went on to beat Woodlands of Nanaimo 2-1 (25-20, 25-27,15-9) in a placement round playoff Thursday afternoon. That sets up match today at 11:30 against Hugh McRoberts of Richmond. The winner of that match will play for ninth on Saturday.
Meanwhile, at the single-A girls tournament in Castlegar it was a tough day at the office for the Cedars Christian Eagles. They came into the tournament ranked second but lost all three of their opening-day matches to Richmond 2-0 (25-20, 25-20), White Rock 2-0 (25-21, 25-18) and Immaculata 2-1 (2025, 25-16, 15-11).
At the triple- girls tournament in Vernon, the No. 1-ranked Duchess Park Condors won two of three matches, starting with wins over Clayton Heights 2-0 (25-9, 25-14) and Okanagan Mission 2-1 (23-25, 25-15, 15-10), then lost 2-1 (16-25, 25-23, 15-12) to Brooks.
The No. 2-ranked College Heights Cougars won one of three pool play matches. They defeated Fraser Heights 2-1 (16-25, 25-17, 17-15), then lost to Windsor 2-0 (25-21, 25-19) and Timberline 2-1 (13-25, 27-25, 15-10).
At the double-a girls tournament in Winfield, the D.P. Todd Trojans dropped their opening matches. They started with a 2-0 (25-10, 25-10) loss to Surrey Christian, then went down in defeat 2-0 (25-16, 25-20) to Brentwood. D.P. Todd also played George Elliot in a late match.
At the 24-team triple-A boys tournament in Kelowna, the Prince George Polars went 1-2 in pool play, then lost Thursday 3-0 (25-15, 25-14, 25-17) to Delta.
The best the Polars can now finish is
17th. Their first match today at 10:15 a.m. is against the North Peace Ooks of Fort
St. John, who defeated PGSS 2-0 (25-12, 25-12) on Wednesday.
