Two Prince George high school volleyball teams finished off their seasons on Saturday standing on the medal podium.
The Cedars Christian Eagles made school history in Duncan, overcoming a slow start to defeat the Langley Christian Lightning 2-1 (19-25, 25-21, 15-5) to finish third in the single-A girls provincial championship.
"It's the first-ever provincial girls volleyball medal for Cedars," said Jeff Ludditt, who shares the Eagles' coaching duties with Martin Pudlas. "They were a little flat coming in but they knew they could play well against that team, it just took them a bit to get rid of the rust after losing the semifinal,"
Cedars middle blocker Kristin Anton was a first-team all-star while setter Megan Karpenko and outside hitter Hannah Pudlas of the Eagles were picked for the second team. All nine Eagles are Grade 12 players.
"Kristin was consistent all weekend, her blocking was outstanding," said Ludditt. "She's six-foot-two and she never comes off the floor. She plays back-row defence and she put the ball away quite a bit."
In the semifinals, Cedars lost 3-0 (25-21, 25-20, 25-20) to Kelowna Secondary, who went on to defeat Immaculata of Kelowna 3-1 in the gold-medal match.
Meanwhile in Delta, the College Heights Cougars rallied behind an injured teammate and defeated Point Gray of Vancouver 2-1 (25-15, 29-31, 25-8) in the bronze-medal match.
At the triple-A girls tournament, College Heights middle blocker Dayna Hamilton broke her leg when she stepped on the foot of an opponent in the first match of the tournament Friday against Ballenas of Parksville.
"She hit the ground pretty hard and it was a broken fibula," said Cougars head coach Jason Olexyn. "We really stepped up our defence this weekend and played really consistently with a lot of character and a lot of heart. Power hitter Danica Kettles was a first team all-star, she's the best passer on the team and she was outstanding in every realm of the game."
Grade 11 middle blocker Shauna Hepburn took over Hamilton's spot and Amy Melquist picked up the serving slack in Hamilton's absence. Cougar setter Taylor Samuelson's performance in the tournament was worthy of second team all-star recognition.
In the semifinal round Saturday morning, Nanaimo District narrowly defeated the Cougars 3-2 (26-24, 13-25, 29-27, 22-25, 15-11) to advance to the gold-medal match against Seaquam of Delta. Nanaino prevailed in a five-set championship match.
"I don't know the history but I do know it's been decades since the College Heights girls have won a provincial medal," said Olexyn. "We played awesome. It's bittersweet, winning bronze when you're that close to the gold, but it wasn't lucky that we were there. We definitely deserved to be in the top three."
College Heights swept Vernon 3-0 (25-19, 25-18, 25-22) in the quarterfinals Friday night.
At the same tournament, the Duchess Park Condors finished up with a pair of match victories Saturday to place ninth. The Condors needed just two sets to defeat Ballenas 25-17, 27-25, after they'd defeated McRoberts of Richmond 2-1 (25-22, 23-25, 15-12).
At the double-A boys championship in Kelowna, the College Heights Cougars finished up their provincial run on a winning note, defeating Clarence Fulton of Vernon 2-0 (25-19, 25-19) in a match to determine seventh-place. The D.P. Todd Trojans finished in 15th place.
The D.P. Todd Trojans finished 14th at the double-A girls tournament in Surrey. D.P. Todd lost the 13th-place battle to Cedar of Nanaimo 2-0 (25-15-32-30), after the Trojans beat St. Thomas Aquinas of 2-0 (25-22, 25-20) in a consolation match.
