The Elphinstone Secondary School senior girls' volleyball team has secured a berth in next weekend's provincial championship.
Elphi placed second in the Vancouver and District playdowns last weekend to secure the berth after losing a close match to host St. Patrick's.
Last Thursday, Elphi beat St. Thomas Aquinas (STA) in two sets, then lost in three close sets to St. Thomas More."None of the players played very well against St. Thomas More, so I was quite worried about Friday's match," said coach Jan Richey.
Elphi placed second in its pool, which meant they crossed over for the playoffs playing number one seed Notre Dame.
"If we didn't win that match, we would have had to go to the wild card tournament this weekend to secure a berth for provincials," said Richey. "I really didn't want to do that as who knows what teams you would run up against in that tournament. We regrouped, had a good team meeting on Friday and went in ready to play Notre Dame. They are a big, hard-hitting team with very good serving and we fought back and forth every point."
Elphi won in three games, with the final score 15-13 in game three.
"Game point was an overpass from Notre Dame over the net and right to our right side hitter Hanna Anderson, who killed the ball to the floor," Richey added. "That put us in the final. It was quite funny. We had four spectators and they had three-quarters of the stands filled with fans with drums. Our girls played well, but we lost in two close games."
Richey said the team will be in the gym this week preparing for the provincials, which are set for STA in North Vancouver Dec. 1 to 3.
"I heard this week that the last senior girls' volleyball team from Elphi to go to provincials was in 1988, so it's been a while," said Richey. "I was really proud of how the girls stepped up their game and everyone contributed."
