Elphinstone volleyball players are on a roll.
A week after capturing another North Shore title, the juvenile girls won the Vancouver District title last week, and the senior girls won their second consecutive Lower Mainland championship and booked their ticket to the provincial championships for the second straight year.
The juvenile girls went into the Vancouver District playoffs at Windsor Secondary School as the North Shore's number one seeded team.
The quarter-final match saw Elphi matched up against Burnaby/New Westminster's number three seeded team. Elphi won this match in two sets advancing them to a semi-final matchup against Richmond's McMath Secondary School.
The Cougars dominated with consistent serving and passing.
The final pitted Elphi against Windsor. The match was a battle from the start. Matching each other point for point throughout the first set, Elphi's determination was exemplified by Iris Smallwood's impressive chase ball play that was finished decisively by Arianna Harder for a point. This set ended in a 29-27 win for Elphi.
The second set continued to be a battle of wills. Elphi dug deep and was pumped up off a huge Taylor Whittall/Amber Henderson double block on Windsor's powerful left side hitter. Elphi's consistently solid play and determination secured a 25-22 win and the Vancouver District title.
The senior girls won four straight last week to claim the Lower Mainland banner.
The Cougars started play with a tough three-set win over St. Thomas Aquinas (STA) and a three-set win over the host team St. Thomas More (STM).
Both matches were battles, a lot of back and forth in the sets, said coach Jan Richey. I didn't think we played as well as we could have, but we got the wins.
The wins earned the Cougars a bye into the semi-finals on Thursday where they played STA again.
We played much better, a complete match, and we ended up winning in two sets, Richey said. Probably one of our better performances this year.
That put the Cougars into the final against STM.
Both teams are very evenly matched, each with strong serving, good blocking, so it was a really good match, she said. We split the first two sets and then in the third, the girls just got into a zone and we won 15-6.
The provincials are Nov. 28 to 30 at Pacific Academy and Surrey Christian.
Richey thinks the Cougars will be ranked either third or fourth.
It's going to be a tough test, but some of our girls have been there before, so experience certainly helps, she said. We were talking in practice about what it's going to take to win. It's three days of competition, so it's a grind. The girls are looking forward to it, but we will have to raise our game.
