There were a few tension-filled moments but the Cedars Christian Eagles prevailed in the gold-medal match of the north-central zone high school girls volleyball championship.
With their 3-1 (25-20, 18-25, 25-16 and 25-10) over the Chetwynd Cavaliers in Saturday's final of the single-A championship at CNC the Eagles advanced to the provincial championship, Nov. 28 to Dec. 1, in Castlegar. The Cavaliers may also advance, either through a win Tuesday against the second-place team from the northwest zone or through default should their opponent choose not to travel to Prince George for the game. If the game goes ahead it will be played at CNC at 3:30 p.m.
Eagles setter Megan Karpenko said the Cavaliers were a tough opponent.
"They put up a big fight and we had to work harder than we had in the other games," said the 15-year-old. "It's been a long fight. It's just awesome teamwork throughout the whole tournament."
Both the Eagles and Cavaliers entered the final with unblemished records, 5-0 and 6-0 respectively. There were nine teams entered in the tournament which gave the Cavaliers an extra game to play during the round robin.
In splitting the first two sets of the final the Eagles and Cavaliers matched each other point for point with neither side able to pull away. But in the third set the Eagles opened up a 15-4 advantage enough of a lead to fend off their opponents' attack despite getting outscored 12-10 the rest of the way.
The victory in the third game was set up by the strong serving of Nicole Kragt.
"It's the best tournament for her by far, she just really pulled through and hit everything," said Karpenko, no slouch in the service game herself after setting a personal record of 14 straight serves in the Eagles' win over Tumbler Ridge during round-robin play.
Kayla Gordon, the lone Grade 12 player for the Eagles, notched the final kills in both the third and fourth sets.
In the final set the Cavaliers ran out of gas and couldn't match the Eagles intensity.
"In the last two sets the girls gave up a little bit," said Cavaliers coach Helen Toppin. "They got tired. They weren't passing the ball after the first pass."
Karpenko and Kayla Gordon were both named as first-team all-stars while libero Shannon Kragt was a second team all-star. For the Cavaliers, Leah Pfanner and Kristian Leishman were first-team all-stars.
The Fort St. James Falcons took the bronze medal in the tournament.
Roadrunners zip past Condors in AAA tournament
In triple-A girls volleyball, the Kelly Road Roadrunners ran past the Duchess Park Condors to claim the north-central berth in the provincial championship, Nov. 28 to Dec. 1, at Crofton House in Port Coquitlam.
The Condors won the round-robin portion of the three-team event in Dawson Creek, earning a berth in the gold-medal game, which set up a semifinal match between the Roadrunners and Dawson Creek. Kelly Road won to set up the all Prince George final.
In the final, Richard Mintenko coached the 10 members of the Roadrunners to a 3-1 (25-12, 25-21, 18-25 and 25-22) victory over his former team.
Alex McKenna and Calyssa DeBoer were named to the all-star team from Kelly Road and Maddy Ballantyne and Kiana Kovacivic received the honour for Duchess Park.
Other members of the Roadrunners are Lorin Castle, Shae Gurney, Sam Brewer, Chantel Whyte, Danny Brbot and Maddison Emmond. Grant Emmond is also a coach.
