It was a rocky start for the Cedars Christian Eagles at the 2011 single-A senior girls volleyball provincial championship Thursday at the Northern Sport Centre.
Janene Giesbrecht, Eagles' captain, said after the team lost its first two games it was nice to wrap up the round-robin with a straight-sets win over the Campbell River Cougars, 25-23, 25-23.
"We'll have a better sleep tonight," said Giesbrecht.
But, the win wasn't easy as the Eagles needed to rebound from a slow start in the second set in order to sweep the Cougars. In their first game of the tournament, the eighth-seeded Eagles lost 25-12, 25-13 to fifth-seeded Kelowna Christian.
"Kelowna's a good team and we weren't quite ready for it," said Giesbrecht.
The Eagles followed up with a disheartening loss to Duncan Christian, 25-22, 25-17.
"[We had what] were just silly little mistakes and not great passing," said the 17 year old setter.
The 1-2 record means the Eagles will play in the first elimination match today.
Jeff Ludditt, Eagles' coach, said his team's intensity needs to improve if they're going to have a shot at moving on in the medal side of competition.
"They struggled a bit today with emotion," said Ludditt. "It seems sometimes playing at home you kind of get a little bit lazy. When you play on the road you know it's a big tournament because you travel somewhere."
The Eagles take on the Houston Christian Wildcats today at 10 a.m. at UNBC to determine which team moves on to the quarterfinal. The Wildcats finished second in pool C with a 2-1 record, losing to Vancouver Island's Cedars Secondary.
The other North-Central representative, the host Chetwynd Cavaliers, also struggled in pool D dropping their first two matches before coming up against the Elkford Secondary Celtics (Fernie) in a battle of winless round-robin squads.
Chetwynd lost 25-21 in the first set before rebounding in the second set with a 25-17 win to force a third and deciding set. A seesaw third set was broken open when the Celtics' Jessalyn Parker served five points for the 15-9 victory.
Skylar Hillton, Cavaliers' captain, said considering the team didn't qualify for the tournament they've done OK.
The Cavaliers face the top-seed and defending champion Highwood Academy today at 10 a.m., while the Celtics will play White Rock. Highwood won pool A at 3-0 while White Rock was second at 2-1.
The consolation and quarterfinals will be played at CNC beginning at 2 p.m.
