The Highland Raiders were like circus jugglers dazzling the crowd with feats of athleticism, but the entertainment value was lost on the Duchess Park Condors.
They kept waiting for the ball to drop in the Raiders' court. Unfortunately for the hometown Condors, the visitors from Vancouver Island weren't about to waste their chance to put on a show.
The eighth-ranked Raiders of Comox stunned the No. 4-seeded Condors in straight sets, 25-23, 25-21, Friday afternoon at the triple-A girls provincial girls volleyball championship at Duchess Park gymnasium.
Kailey Dodd, a five-foot-12 tower of strength in the middle of the Raiders front line, was the Condors' nemesis. When she wasn't teaming up with power hitter Hilary McLoughlin to swat down passes from setter Danyka Kozlowski, the Grade 11 Dodd was a catalyst on defence, making unbelievable digs in the backcourt, or using her reach to deflate the Condors' kill shot attempts.
"We have a really good setter and she helps us out a lot -- we had great passes, great sets and great hits and everything just kind of worked out," said Dodd.
After losing the first set by four, the Condors thought they had the first point of the second set nailed down with a baseline hot shot, but Dodd somehow came up with the ball and it sailed back over the net and caught the Condors flatfooted. Dodd continued to pound the ball to keep the Condors under pressure.
"Kailey is definitely an up-and-comer and I think you'll see her in a college near you soon," said Raiders coach Cheryl MacLeod. "They're all leaders and these are all Grade 11s, with only one Grade 12. This is our first year in the senior league."
As well as Highland played, the Condors were their own worst enemies at times. They served into the net too many times, or made bad passes that gave the Raiders points. Duchess Park rallied behind the serving of Natalie MacLaren and scored four straight to lead the second set 17-14, but had trouble from that point finding holes with their kills and were outsmarted at the net by the Raiders, who missed just one serve the entire match.
"If you lose the first set it's always harder to pick up your energy and we had them for bit there in that second set," said Condors middle blocker Nicole Schlick, who played her first matches Thursday after missing a month with a rotator cuff injury.
"We were exhausted from our other games and nerves were a factor. We're used to the ball hitting the floor with our hits and they were getting all out balls up. That's something we have to get used to as we go farther into the tournament."
By winning their pool, the Raiders face the fourth-place team in the A pool, Elgin Park (1-2) in a playoff today at noon at Duchess Park. The loss means the Condors will have to vacate their brand-new home gym and play Crofton House (1-2), the third-place A pool team, today at noon at the College of New Caledonia.
The Condors started the day in front of noisy full-house crowds of students with relatively easy wins over Smithers, 25-13, 25-12 and Rockridge of West Vancouver, 25-14, 25-16. Highland won the D pool with a 3-0 record, also defeated Smithers and Rockridge in straight sets.
"We didn't play as consistent as we did in our first two games when we had a great home crowd," said Condors coach Richard Mintenko. "This was an emotional downturn and we made more mistakes in terms of serving and mental errors. Nicole was hitting well and we weren't getting the ball to her enough to take advantage of that."
The Kelly Road Runners went 0-3 on Day 1, losing in two sets to Timberline 25-8, 25-16, Nanaimo 25-16, 25-18 and Brookswood 27-25, 25-20.
Meanwhile, at the boys double-A provincial championship in Kelowna, the College Heights Cougars had their title hopes dashed after a 3-0 (10-25, 14-25, 16-25) loss to Mennonite Education Institute of Abbotsford.
"MEI was just a superior team," said Cougars coach Jay Guillet.
The Cougars qualified for the playoff with a 3-1 (25-17, 22-25, 27-25, 25-15) win over Okanagan Mission, a match that lasted an hour and 50 minutes.
The best the Cougars can finish now is fifth. They play Langley Christian today at 2 p.m.
The D.P. Todd Trojans started the day with a 3-0 loss to Prince Charles to fall to 0-4 in the tournament. The Trojans went on to beat Pacific Christian 25-21, 25-19 in the consolation round.
At the boys triple-A provincials, also in Kelowna, Kelly Road's record dropped to 2-3 after a three-set loss to Mount Baker, 26-24, 15-25, 7-15. The Roadrunners also lost to Claremont 21-25, 23-25, 21-25.
