It was a day for Knights in Prince George as Kelowna Christian and Highroad Academy blazed a trail towards the final of the 2011 single-A senior girls' volleyball provincial championship.
The Knights from Kelowna swept their way into the semifinals with a 3-0 (25-22, 25-20 and 25-13) win over the White Rock Warriors in one of Friday's quarterfinal matches.
Kelowna coach Rob Smith said after his Knights went up 2-0 he switched his line up for the first time in the tournament.
"In preparation for [today], I thought I would make the change to what may be our strongest line up," said Smith. "Up until now the games haven't been that difficult for us so we've been letting everyone play. I thought this is a good time - we've won two and we can risk something here. Even if we [lost the set] we still felt we could come back."
The change included interjecting Micaylee Pucilowski at the power position and moving Sarah Roberts from power to the off side. It was enough to throw the Warriors off balance. White Rock earned the first two points of the third set, but were dumbfounded to answer the Knights' challenge, falling behind 16-7.
The Highroad Knights defeated Duncan Christian 3-0 in the other early quarterfinal.
Highroad brought a veteran team to the championship having lost only two Grade 12s from last year's gold-medal winning squad, while Larry Daley went from assistant to head coach.
"It's harder this year, because last year we were seeded number six and coming in this year we were seeded number one so there's a bit of an expectation there," said Daley. "Last year, we sort of came in under the radar."
The other Friday quarterfinal matches were between the northwest zone champion Houston Christian Wildcats versus the Richmond Christian Eagles and Cedars Secondary against Golden. The results of both games were unavailable at press time.
Kelowna will play the winner between Cedars and Golden in one semifinal, while Highroad will face either the Wildcats or Eagles. Both semifinals are at 10:50 a.m.
"Either team has its problems for us," said Daley. "We're going to have to be sharp."
On the flip side of the draw, the Cedars Christian Eagles will face the Chetwynd Cavaliers with the winner to face either Campbell River or Ebenezer school for 13th place. Both the Eagles and Cavaliers lost their two matches Friday. Cedars fell to the Wildcats and the Simikameen Secondary Sparks, while host Chetwynd lost to the defending champions from High Road Academy and Mount Sentinel.
The consolation match between the Eagles and Cavaliers is at the Northern Sport Centre at 10 a.m.
