It was a rare occurrence at Kelowna Secondary School’s annual Best Of The West volleyball tournament on the weekend as Central Okanagan boys or girls teams failed to make it to the Gold Division Final Four.
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Just as surprising, the Mt. Boucherie Bears lost four of six matches on the weekend, but still took over the No. 1 spot in the B.C high school AAA rankings.
The Bears, after dropping their first three matches in pool play, fell 25-19, 25-23 to the eventual silver medalist from St. Joseph’s High School in Grande Prairie, Alta. in the first round of the playoffs.
But Boucherie, ranked fifth in the province going into weekend play, rebounded to defeat the No. 10-ranked Okanagan Mission Huskies in two straight sets and knocked off B.C.’s No. 2 Mt. Baker Wild of Cranbook in three games to tie the George Elliot Coyotes of Lake Country for a ninth-place finish among the 12 teams competing in the tournament’s top division.
The Jasper Place Rebels of Edmonton, ranked No. 2 in the Alberta 4A division won the boys BOTW Gold Division with a win over St. Joseph’s.
Boucherie’s veteran head coach, John McParland, said it’s taken time for his team to realize the level of play it needs to maintain throughout an entire match.
“We struggled to find that high level in our matches on Friday, but we learned from it and were able to build some momentum on Saturday,” said McParland. “The ability to play the game past the 20-point mark is important against the top teams, and the boys showed they can do that in the match against Mt. Baker.”
While the coach conceded that his team’s defence and serving still needs to be tougher, he was pleased with the overall play.
“Our Grade 12 setter, Harrison Larson had a good weekend running the offence, while left sides, Joel Semeniuk and Sam Taneda (both Grade 12), played well at times, with Isaac Witt (Grade 11) providing a spark when needed.
“Middle Cam Powell (Grade 11) and libero Nic Bednar (Grade 11) also got stronger as the weekend went on. Nic did a nice job of controlling the first contact, which helps everyone. Dalton Kirtzinger (Grade 11) is hitting the ball very well on the right side.”
McParland was surprised his team earned the No. 1 provincial ranking this week, saying that the previously top-ranked Earl Marriott Mariners of Surrey, who reached the quarter-finals in the Gold Division playoffs on the weekend should have maintained their place atop the seeding.
The Bears have a bye in Okanagan AAA league play next week, but will resume action Nov. 1 when they play host to the Penticton Lakers in a battle for first place.
Boucherie will also compete in the annual George Elliot Coyotes Classic tournament Nov. 3 and 4.
The Coyotes, seeded fourth in the provincial AA rankings, won two of three matches in Gold Division pool play at the Best Of The West and fell to Earl Marriott (No. 3 AAA) in the first round of the playoffs.
Solid skills and backcourt play led to wins over the W.L. Seaton Sonics of Vernon (No. 10 - AA) and the Semiahmoo Totems of Surrey (No. 10 -AAA) for the ninth-place tie with Boucherie.
Elliot head coach, Chris Frehlick, cited the strong serve receive and attack of Roan McCarthy as one the team’s key strengths on the weekend, while Jake Kupchenko also had a solid tournament on defence and in a leadership role.
Looking to have more variety in their offence and improvement in their blocking, the Coyotes — first-place finishers at a tournament in Penticton and in 10th place among 40 teams at the University of B.C. high school tournament earlier this fall — are preparing for league playoffs and the Valley championship Nov. 17-18 in Vernon (Seaton).
Meanwhile, a young Kelowna Owls team was winless in five Gold Division matches at their own Best of the West tournament.
In the Black Division, the Kelowna Christian School Knights got off to a slow start, but built up enough traction to claim top spot on Saturday.
The single-A team, after losing to Princess Margaret of Penticton and Revelstoke in pool play on Friday, took three sets to defeat Clayton Heights Nite Riders of Surrey in their first playoff match and avenged their earlier loss to Summerland for the right to play the Fleetwood Park Dragons of Surrey in the championship match.
With an opportunity to watch Fleetwood play Princess Margaret in a semifinal, KCS was able to form was proved to be a winning plan of attack against the favoured Dragons.
“We took a good look at a couple of holes in their defence and discussed what we were going to do before the final,” noted Knights’ head coach James Haasdyk. “Honestly, Fleetwood played such a great game in the semi that I didn’t think we would be able to beat them in the championship game.”
But KCS came through with what their coach considered its best game of the season.
“Offensively we exploited every advantage we could see and executed our game plan better than we have so far this year. Defensively we worked hard, digging balls, chasing shanked passes and covering everything that was thrown at us. We managed to hold the majority of the momentum of the game throughout the match.
“The coach of Fleetwood approached me after the game and said there were no holes in our defence that he could work on and that every player was so consistent his team had no one it could key on.”
While the win was a team effort, Haasdyk lauded the defensive play of power Josh Flood and middle Parker Kent. Offensively, power Connor Haasdyk and middle Max Becker led the way for the Knights.
KCS will travel to Abbotsford for a tournament this weekend and will also compete in the Coyote Classic. Their A league playoffs go No. 1 at KCS, with the Valley championship tournament a week later. The provincial A championship tournament will be held in Kamloops Nov. 23-25.
The KCS girls, ranked No. 1 among single-A teams in the province, reached the semifinal finals and finished in third place overall in the Yellow Division at the Best of the West.
The only A-division team in their pool, the Knights dropped all three matches before recovering to win their first two playoff matches. They downed the George Elliot Coyotes in the opening round of the playoffs and earned a berth in the semis on Saturday by defeating Archbishop MacDonald High School of Edmonton.
In their semifinal match with the G.W. Graham Grizzlies of Chilliwack, the No 10-ranked team in the B.C. triple-A rankings, the Knights continued to play well, but dropped a 25-22, 25-23 decision.
Their final match saw the Knights defeat the W.J. Mouat Hawks of Abbotsford to earn the bronze medal and the top ranking among A teams in the tournament.
Members of the team, coached by Marlin Toews and Dave Bingham, are Abby Heinen, Hannan Sherstobetoff, Julia Toews, Kara Stasiewich, Mackayla Sader, Madi Martens, Mallory Sader, Maggie Becker, Taysha Boulter and Victoria Schriemer.
In the girls’ Gold Division, the host Kelowna Owls made it to the quarter-finals, losing to the MEI Eagles of Abbotsford in their final match.
The Owls dropped two of their three matches in pool play before defeating Langley Fundamental in the first round of the playoffs.
Mt. Boucherie Bears lost their opening match in the playoff to Semiahmoo, but came back to defeat Vernon and Penticton in their final two games.
Black Division action saw the Rutland Voodoos come through with a solid weekend, winning two of three matches in pool play and adding two more victories in three playoff matches.
In all, 43 girls teams and 39 boys teams took part in the annual event played in gymnasiums throughout the Central Okanagan.
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