So much for home court advantage.
The Duchess Park Condors rose to the challenge of trying to knock off the Pacific Christian Pacers as hosts of the double-A provincial boys high school volleyball championship and picked an opportune time to do it Friday afternoon in Victoria – with a ticket to the gold-medal match awaiting the winner.
The Condors pounded out a four-set victory, winning 25-20, 21-25, 25-22, 25-19 to advance to Saturday’s championship match against Langley Christian, who defeated Mennonite Educational Institute in a five-set semifinal Friday.
From the opening volley it became obvious the Condors and Pacers were closely-matched and after three intense sets decided by only a few points, Duchess Park took an early lead in the fourth and deciding set and although the Pacers tied it a few times the Condors never trailed. They knocked the hosts off-balance with a relentless series of kills from Jeremy Weaver, Jacob Hoskins and Isaak Lank that found the hardwood and leaned on the stellar defence of Weaver, libero Ryan Danbrook, setter Chris Zimmerman and Raiden Aimetz to keep balls alive with diving digs and suffocating blocks.
Their ability to distribute the ball was superior to that of the Pacers, who weren’t able to utilize the talents of their provincial team middle blocker Piers de Greeff as much as they would have liked. He and front-row specialist Jesse Umoren still hurt the Condors with their presence at the net but they managed to keep the ball out of their hands enough times to limit the damage and give them themselves the edge.
“Our passing was exceptional tonight, that’s something we’ve worked on throughout the year,” said Condors head coach Jason Weaver. “We’re not the biggest team and we have to make up for it in other areas and I think we do everything fairly well. The never-say-die attitude for the guys was out there on display on our defence for sure. There were multiple plays that the ball just didn’t hit the floor.
“Our serving put them on their heels a little bit and they couldn’t run their middle attack effectively and that helped us at least get some hands on the ball. We didn’t block everything but we did slow it down and let our defence make some digs in the back row and transition it. It definitely helped when they’re not passing the ball.”
Lank’s pulverizing spike from the right side of the net ended the match and triggered the Condor celebration, knowing they’re guaranteed at least a silver medal The final is set for 4 p.m. Saturday at Royal Bay Secondary School in Colwood. The match will be livestreamed free by B.C. High School Sports on the tournament website: www.bcss.tv.
The Condors came in ranked No. 3 and lost all three of their power-pool matches, including a two-set loss to Pacific Christian, in which the Condors served poorly and made 30 unforced errors. Coach Weaver said his team hasn’t had the opportunity to travel much this season, limited by the school district to just one roadtrip. That took them to the TRU tournament in Kamloops in mid-November, where they finished third against some top-notch competition.
They gained confidence Friday with a straight-set quarterfinal victory over Pacific Academy. The Condors won in three sets but had to overcome a 12-2 deficit in the third set, which they did with a 15-5 run, eventually winning 27-25.
Also at the double-A boys tournament, the College Heights Cougars lost their quarterfinal to Hugh McRoberts on Thursday and beat Revelstoke in a playoff match Friday afternoon to advance to the fifth-place game against Pacific Academy, to be played Saturday at 10:30 a.m.
The Condors might not be the only Prince George team coming home with a medal. At the single-A boys championship on Nanaimo, the No. 2-ranked Cedars Christian Eagles advanced to the semifinals Friday with a come-from-behind five-set (18-25, 20-25, 25-16, 25-22, 15-12) win over Credo Christian.
Coached by Frank Crosina, the Eagles advanced to a semifinal Friday night against Abbotsford Christian and lost 3-0 (25-22, 25-17, 33-31). Cedars will now play for bronze today at 12:30 p.m. against Nanaimo Christian. Abbotsford and Vancouver Christian meet in the championship match at 2:30 p.m.
The Cedars Christian Eagles senior girls can finish no higher than fifth.. The Eagles finished third in the preliminary round with a 4-2 record, finishing round-robin play Friday with a 2-0 (27-25, 25-16) win over King’s Christian, after losing 2-1 (25-14, 21-25, 15-13) to Mt. Sentinel.
Cedars was due to play a Charles Boom in a playoff game Friday evening but were unable to get through from their hotel in Castlegar to the tournament site at Mt. Sentinel in South Slocan due to a serious traffic accident that closed the highway. The teams met Saturday morning and Charles Bloom won in three straight sets to advance to the semifinal round. The Eagles will play again this afternoon.
The No. 7 Fort St. James Falcons (1-4) Falcons took on No. 2 Mt Sentinel in an earlier playoff Friday afternoon. The score was unavailable on the tournament website.
Meanwhile, at the triple-A girls provincials in Vancouver, the Duchess Park Condors senior girls had their title hopes dashed.
The Condors took on a familiar foe Friday afternoon when they met the Dawson Creek Penguins in a playoff to decide who will advance to the quarterfinal round. Duchess had beaten the Penguins in all three of their previous meetings this season and the Condors got off to a great start, winning the first two sets 25-14, 25-18, but the Penguins stormed back to tie it 25-17, 25-18 and took the deciding fifth set 15-9.
“We had everything going great for us and it just switched,” said Condors head coach Jasen Florell. The Condors went 1-1 in pool play at the 14-team tournament and won their morning playoff over Vernon 3-1 (25-11, 25-19, 22-25, 25-22).
“We actually didn’t play that well in the round robin and we played better this morning and even better in the first two sets (against Dawson Creek). But they got the momentum and we just couldn’t get it back. They’re a really good game and every game we’ve had with them has been close”
The Condors defeated Delta 2-0 (25-22, 25-20) in a playoff game Friday night to advance to the fifth-place playoff Saturday at 12:50 p.m. against Windsor.
At the double-A girls tournament in Abbotsford, the D.P. Todd Trojans had their provincial ambitions derailed Friday morning in a four-set (25-23, 21-25, 25-14, 25-22) playoff loss to Mulgrave. That dropped the head coach Brian Bird’s Trojans into the placement round with MacNeill, Archbishop Carney, Holy Cross and St. Michael’s. The Trojans went on to lose their first placement match to Holy Cross 2-0 (25-18, 25-21).
