As far as the Duchess Park Condors are concerned, their Friday night opponents from Little Flower Academy were no Angels.
They showed absolutely no mercy in scuttling the Condors' attempts to win the triple-A girls volleyball provincial championship.
The Angels pounded the Condors 25-21, 23-25, 25-12, 27-25 in front of a half-full, pro-Condor crowd at Duchess Park gymnasium to book themselves a semifinal berth.
After losing the first set, the Condors got themselves back into the match, riding on the back of Amy Hogan. The Grade 12 power hitter fought off a sprained ankle she had hurt earlier in the day in a four-set (27-25, 25-17, 16-25, 26-24) win over Elgin Park and came back to lead the Condors with a series of blocks, kill shots, and serving aces that gave them a chance.
But Little Flower applied crushing force in the third set as the Duchess Park defence self-destructed. The Angels built a 9-2 lead mostly a result of their opponents' misplayed serve returns that never got back over the net. With Tatyana Olal, Natalie Mahara and setter Melanie Jang supplying the offence, the Condors never recovered. The Condors made a game of it in the fourth set, but that was all they could muster.
The best Duchess Park can finish now is fifth. They'll take on Robert A. McMath of Richmond today at 10:50 a.m. and will have to win two matches.
In other quarterfinal results, top-ranked Clarence Fulton of Vernon survived an epic battle with Kalamalka of Vernon, winning 19-25, 25-21, 22-25, 25-11, 15-10; Timberline of Campbell River defeated McMath in another five-set affair, 24-26, 31-29, 23-25, 25-11, 15-10; and Clayton Heights of Surrey beat Highland of Comox. 25-23, 23-25, 18-25, 25-17, 15-10.
Fulton will play Clayton Heights in a semifinal match today at 10:50, while on the other court, Little Flower will play Timberline. The winners advance to the gold-medal match tonight at 5 p.m. The bronze-medal game is set for 3:30 p.m. The semifinals and medal matches will be played at Duchess Park.
After starting the day with a two-set loss to Little Flower Academy, the Kelly Road Runners dropped to 0-6 Friday afternoon, losing 25-17, 26-24 to Elgin Park of Surrey.
"That was the best we've played all tournament," said Runners head coach Richard Bruce. "We had set point in the second set with a 24-23 lead but they scraped it out."
The Runners ran into a couple of injuries that forced them to shuffle the roster. Starting middle blocker Skyla Obranovic tore a rotator cuff last week in practice and will not play in provincials. Katherine Schreiner, the starting libero, hurt her shoulder in Friday's loss to Little Flower Academy.
Bruce needed the serving power of libero Taylor Eastman, and gave Grade 10 player Alex McKenna the task of replacing Schreiner. Calyssa Deboer, a Grade 9 power hitter, and Emma Balazs, a offside hitter up from the junior team, lined up alongside senior power hitter Kaylee Stephen on the front line.
"Alex is usually a setter and she'd never played libero and her service return was fantastic, I'm very proud of her," Bruce said. "Calyssa played three-quarters of the time at power and she's done an excellent job. They've all done extremely well coming up from junior to senior. We're not the only team that's had to deal with adversity, it happens."
Kelly Road came into the 16-team tournament ranked 14th and if they can pull off a pair of wins today, they will claim 13th place. The Runners will face D.W. Poppy today at Duchess Park at 9:30 a.m. If they win, they'll play again at 1 p.m., also at Duchess.
n Meanwhile at the triple-A boys provincial tournament in Kelowna, Kelly Road knocked off Reynolds of Victoria 2-1 (15-25, 25-21, 15-6) in a playoff Friday to finish 19th.
n At the double-A boys tournament, also in Kelowna, the D.P. Todd Trojans defeated Mount Sentinel of South Slocan 25-21, 25-19 to advance to today's ninth-place game at 10:15 a.m. against Okanagan-Mission. The College Heights Cougars will take on Prince Charles of Creston today at 11:30 a.m. in the seventh-place game.
n The Cedars Christian Eagles picked up their first win after four losses Friday at the single-A girls championship in Abbotsford. The Eagles defeated Houston Christian 25-19, 25-18 to advance to a playoff today against Fernie. The winner will qualify for the 13th-place game today at 1:30 p.m.
n The College Heights Cougars and D.P. Todd Trojans both dropped to 0-5 after their matches Friday at the double-A girls championship in Kamloops. The Cougars lost 25-11, 25-11, 25-18 to Surrey Christian, then went down in defeat to Simpson Traditional of Abbotsford 25-14, 26-14. The Trojans started Friday with a 25-20-25-16, 25-13 loss to Lambrick Park of Victoria, then went down in straight sets to Westsyde of Kamloops 25-17, 25-17. Both Prince George teams went 0-3 in the round-robin.
