It was almost too close to call when the senior girls volleyball teams battled for gold last weekend.
Both the gold and bronze medal matches of the D.P. Todd secondary senior girls tournament needed the full three sets, and then some, before winners could be declared.
The gold-medal match pitted the Duchess Park Condors against the Cedars Christian Eagles. In two previous meeting between the triple-A Condors and single-A Eagles were split with each side winning once.
It was a tight match that saw the Condors early momentum shift to the Eagles but the Duchess Park girls were able to get enough back to prevail 2-1 (26-24, 16-25 and 19-17).
In the first set, everything went the Condors way as the Eagles hit balls into the net, under the net and past the in-bounds line, doing their best impressions of Curly, Larry and Moe, as Duchess built a 16-8 advantage.
"We just had to be more consistent in our attack," said Eagles coach Martin Pudlas.
Cedars rebounded to earn the first set point at 24-23 but couldn't drop the final ball as the Condors scored three points to win.
The late surge of momentum carried over to the second set as the Eagles dominated to force the tiebreaker. In the third set, both sides had some good rallies as the scored seesawed back and forth, until the Condors were able to get a couple balls to break their way.
"Emotions get going and they made a couple better plays then we did," said Pudlas.
The Eagles, ranked fourth in the province for single-A girls, will host the north-central zone championship, Nov. 16-17.
"We're positioned well, we keep getting a little bit better every weekend," said Pudlas. "We just need to keep getting cleaner as a team."
In the bronze-medal game North Peace beat Kelly Road 2-1 (25-19, 18-25 and 23-21).
Sr. A Boys
Smitheries' Bulkily Valley secondary beat Caledonia in the annual senior A boys volleyball tournament held at Prince George secondary Saturday in the gold-medal match.
The eight team tournament featured several single-A teams, including the two finalists, but it didn't stop it from being a highly contested weekend. The bronze medal went to the D.P. Todd Trojans after they knocked off Vernon Christian.
According to their coaches the Trojans had a great weekend with one bad game, a semifinal loss to Bulkily Valley.
Fifth place went to the Cedars Christian Eagles after their win over the Mackenzie Sabers. The other two teams in the tournament were the Kelly Road Roadrunners and Houston Christian Wildcats.
Jr. A Girls
It was close but the Duchess Park Condors junior A girls volleyball team survived a scare to emerge as the top squad in Prince George for 2012.
The Condors were the team to beat throughout the high school season but faced a threat to their ranking from the College Heights Cougars in the gold-medal match of the junior A girls volleyball district tournament, held at DPI, Nov. 2-3.
In three tight sets Saturday, the Condors squeaked out a, 26-24, 23-25 and 15-13, win over the upstart Cougars.
Both teams, along with the third place D.P. Todd Trojans and fourth place Prince George secondary Polars, will now prepare for the north central regional championship, hosted by Duchess Park, Friday and Saturday.
The Cedars Christian Eagles and Kelly Road Roadrunners also participated in the district event.
