The Duchess Park Condors kept their cool against the PGSS Polars and were rewarded with a championship in the first senior girls tournament of the high school volleyball season.
The Condors and Polars met in the final of the Kodiak Classic on Saturday night at the College of New Caledonia. After a 25-22 win in the first set, Duchess Park fought off a furious comeback by PGSS in the second and closed out the match with a 26-24 decision.
The Condors seemed to be in full command in the second set after Grade 10 player Rebecca Landry reeled off 14 consecutive service points and moved her team into a 20-10 advantage. The Polars, however, refused to go quietly and clawed all the way back. PGSS actually took a 24-22 lead but Duchess survived a pair of set points and held on for the victory in front of a raucous crowd.
"They showed really good composure in that final," Condors coach Jp Martin said of his players.
"They were really good to each other and they just kept battling, they never stopped. We didn't have too many low points, which always helps."
The Polars had beaten the Condors earlier in the eight-team tournament, so the two classic rivals will likely have some epic matches this season. Within the province, both are in the triple-A division, as are the College Heights Cougars, who placed third at last year's B.C. finals and ended up third at the Kodiak Classic. The triple-A zone championship tournament will be held Nov. 18-19 at Kelly Road and will serve as a qualifier for provincials, Dec. 1-3 in Kelowna.
In the pre-season triple-A rankings, the Polars were listed at No. 7 in B.C. and the Condors were 10th.
While the Condors got contributions from throughout their lineup at the Classic, Grade 12 power hitter Nikita Kovacevic stood out just enough to be named the most valuable player.
"She's a really, really good all-around player," Martin said. "She kind of does it all for us. She plays defence, she passes well and she'll be our biggest attacker too. Nobody was a true standout from our point of view but she was probably our most consistent player all around."
Other members of the Condors are Clara Temoin, Brynn Dergousoff, Hanna Dawson, Lilly Marsh, Izzy Zimmerman, Carly Connor, Reagan Shaw-Bowers, Litsanna Thanos, Sydney Davis and Ayden Martin.
In the second set of Saturday's final, Temoin pulled off a dig that was just shy of miraculous. With the Condors facing a set point, they got a touch on an attempted PGSS kill shot but the ball sailed deep to the back of the court. Temoin, the Duchess libero, sprang after it and dove flat-out, with hand extended, and kept it from hitting the floor. The Condors then managed to send the ball back over the net and ended up winning the point.
"It was definitely the dig of the weekend," said Dan Drezet, president of the Prince George Youth Volleyball Club, which hosts the Kodiak Classic. "She just really didn't give up on the ball. I don't know that (the Condors) would have come out of that one - I think it was a game-changer. It was the highlight of the tournament for me."
Senior volleyball continues this weekend, with tournaments set for Cedars Christian School (girls) and Duchess Park (boys). Junior teams will play in their version of the Kodiak Classic. Matches will be played at D.P. Todd and CNC (girls) and College Heights (boys).
All events start on Friday and run through Saturday.
