Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

College Heights, Duchess Park win boys and girls volleyball titles

After five local junior A boys volleyball tournaments the College Heights Cougars have yet to lose a set. They ran their record to a perfect 30-0 Saturday afternoon playing in their own gym in the north central zone championship.
vball
Jared Ebert of the College Heights Cougars, right, and Jacob Hoskins of the Duchess Park Condors battle at the net on Saturday afternoon at College Heights. The teams clashed in the final of the junior boys zone championship tournament. – Citizen photo by James Doyle

After five local junior A boys volleyball tournaments the College Heights Cougars have yet to lose a set.

They ran their record to a perfect 30-0 Saturday afternoon playing in their own gym in the north central zone championship.

The Cougars topped the Duchess Park Condors, their crosstown rivals, in straight sets, 25-20, 25-16, but it wasn't easy. The Condors jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the first set and were tied with College Heights 16-16 at one point in that opening set.

"We've had better games than that," said Cougars head coach Glenn Wong, now in his 30th season coaching volleyball.

The Cougars are a powerhouse, losing just two matches all season, both in the same tournament two weekends ago at the 32-team TRU event in Kamloops. Mennonite Educational Institute of Abbotsford defeated them in the round robin and in the final.

Their two set wins Saturday ran the Cougars' undefeated north central string to 30 straight sets.

"It's a scary record to have," said Wong. "I don't keep tabs on that but (the Cougars overall season record is) something ridiculous like 36-2-1. I don't put any weight on that really until zones. You can win all year and then get knocked out of zones."

No worries about that now. The Cougars will be the top north central seed when they return to the court at the provincial championship in Kamloops, which starts next Thursday.

No all-star teams were picked but the obvious MVP was right-side hitter Jared Ebert, who pounded the Condors into oblivion.

"Jared has come leaps and bounds this year - he serves, he passes, he hits and he blocks, he's got the complete package," said Wong.

Cougars middle blocker Emmanuel Adefisayo also dominated at the net, backed by the passing of setter Jimmy Brown. College Heights dressed a mostly Grade 10 lineup with Ian Platzer, Colby Hoy and libero Mitchell Stella also getting plenty of court time, along with Grade 9 power hitter Eli Woodringh. Theo Halka, Jackson Kolody and Jordan Fulljames gave the Cougars plenty of support coming off the bench.

"We did get off to a good start in that first set and they just pulled away towards the end," said Condors head coach Jay-Anna Major. "I thought we out-served them and our serve receive was better, but I think their attacking and blocking, their transition game and net play was a lot better. They took over and got better as the match went on.

"They're pretty much a straight Grade 10 team with a lot of experience," she added. "Their starting lineup was almost our whole starting Summer Games lineup, so you've basically got a regional team that all happen to play at one school. They're a very strong, very polished team that's played together a few years and I think they have a good shot at getting a medal at provincials."

Brown, Ebert, Fulljames, Hoy, Platzer and Woodringh all played together on the Cariboo-Northeast zone team at the B.C. Games last summer in Cowichan Valley. Condors Chris Zimmerman, Carson Briere, Caleb Lyons and Haven Dunphy were also part of that team, coached by Major.

"You're going to see these two teams as perennial finalists as seniors, this was a preview of what senior zones will look like in two years," Wong said.

Duchess Park, a mostly Grade 9 squad, finished fifth at that 32-team TRU tournament two weeks ago and Major likes what she's seen lately out of her troops.

"We're happy with how we competed against them throughout the year and how much closer it got as the year went on," said Major. "We made some adjustments to our game and got a bit more aggressive, which really helped us be able to compete against them."

The Cedars Christian Eagles defeated the D.P. Todd Trojans for bronze. All four of the top junior A finishers in the north central zone are eligible to compete in the 24-team provincial championship next week.

In the junior B boys final, also played Saturday at College Heights, the host Cougars won a barnburner over Duchess Park 2-1 (25-17, 10-25, 17-15). Valemount beat Kelly Road 2-0 (25-19, 25-13) for bronze.

Meanwhile, in Quesnel at the junior A girls championship, the Duchess Park junior girls capped off their perfect season in northern tournaments with a straight-set (25-16, 25-9) gold-medal win Saturday over North Peace of Fort St. John.

The Condors won five straight matches on the weekend to run their season record to 29-1.

Grade 9 Condor Macyn Unger was the tournament MVP. Her Duchess Park teammates Karyn Hampe and Emily Bast were selected first-team all stars, while Sophie Martin earned second-team all-star recognition.

The Condors and North Peace qualified for the junior A girls provincial championship in White Rock, which starts next Friday.

In the latest double-A senior boys provincial rankings released this week by B.C. Boys Volleyball, the College Heights Cougars continue to hold on to second spot, just below George Elliot of Lake Country.

Three other Prince George teams cracked the top 12. The Duchess Park Condors leapfrogged the D.P. Todd Trojans and are now ranked No. 7, while the Trojans dropped to the eighth spot. The Kelly Road Roadrunners are No. 12 on the list.

Kelly Road will host the double-A boys zone championship this weekend. The triple-A girls zone tournament starts Friday at Dawson Creek, while the double-A girls zone championship is at D.P. Todd.