After a loss to the Duchess Park Condors during round-robin play, the PGSS Polars raised their game. Their payoff was a zone title and a spot in provincials for the first time since 2009.
The Condors and Polars senior girls volleyball teams collided in the final match of the triple-A zone championship tournament on Saturday afternoon at Duchess Park. The well-balanced Polars, led by MVP Nicole Watt, won in four sets, 25-18, 25-21, 22-25, 25-20.
Earlier in the five-team tournament, on Thursday night, Duchess Park downed PGSS 32-30, 16-25, 15-11.
"I think the girls put a much better effort into the (final) match," said Polars coach Allan Tong. "We were a lot more consistent and there weren't as many mistakes as in the round-robin match."
Watt was a difference-maker the entire tournament. When key points were up for grabs, the Grade 12 power hitter was at her best.
"When we needed someone to get us a hit, she was there," said Tong, whose team defeated Dawson Creek in the semifinal round.
The Polars also got strong performances from all-stars Kendra Potskin (Grade 12 middle blocker) and Micaela Young (Grade 12 setter).
The Condors, meanwhile, were led by Grade 12 players Nikita Kovacevic, Ayden Martin and Clara Temoin. Kovacevic and Martin were picked as all-stars, while Temoin got the nod as top libero. With its silver-medal finish, Duchess also qualified for provincials, Nov. 30 to Dec. 3 at Kelowna's Okanagan Mission secondary school.
Prior to the Thursday round-robin victory, the Condors hadn't beaten the Polars since the Kodiak Classic, held on the first weekend of the season. The win to open zones was huge for Duchess Park because it pretty much locked up a semifinal match against the fourth-place round-robin finisher, which ended up being Correlieu of Quesnel. The Condors won that match in the minimum three sets and knew they had just clinched a berth in the B.C. tournament.
With a provincial appearance guaranteed, Duchess Park was a little flat in the first two sets of the final but that changed in the third when coach Jp Martin rested a couple veterans and replaced them with Grade 10 power hitter Litsanna Thanos and Grade 10 setter Brynn Dergousoff.
"They gave our vets a couple moments of breathing space and then I went back to the older girls and they started to pull it together and then we played really well," coach Martin said. "And then the fourth was really tight."
In the fourth set, the teams were locked in a 16-16 tie before the Polars pulled away for the victory.
The provincial championship tournament will feature 16 teams.
In the most recent set of B.C. rankings, PGSS was No. 7 and Duchess Park was unlisted but neither Tong nor Martin are putting much stock in the top-10 list. Tong's Polars secured a couple victories against fourth-seeded Caledonia of Terrace earlier this season and are looking at a top-three provincial finish as a realistic goal. As for the Condors, Martin sees their relative parity with the Polars as a good sign as they prepare to head south.
"PGSS is a good, solid team and we're proving that we can play with them, and they've proven over the course of the season that they can basically play with anybody in the province," Martin said. "We kinda feel like if we can get our act together mentally, that we can too. We haven't shown it all year but we're maybe starting to show it at the right time."
At the senior girls double-A level, the D.P. Todd Trojans edged the College Heights Cougars in Saturday's zone final. See Thursday's Citizen for more details.
