The Elphinstone junior girls volleyball team is anxiously awaiting their first opponent in the playoffs.
After playing their last league match last Thursday (Oct. 28), the strong Elphi Cougars team ended regular season play with a record of 7-1, placing them tied for first in the very competitive North Shore league. The Cougars played third place Collingwood in their final match, and although Collingwood beat Elphi in the first set, the Cougars came back to win the next three sets.
The Cougars beat West Vancouver Tuesday in the quarterfinals, moving onto the semifinals against Collingwood.
Grade nine girls
The Juvenile (Grade 9) girls started off the season strong and then they had a bit of a setback.
With strong leadership and commitment, the Cougars managed to get it all together when it counted and finished league play with a bit of a bang, winning three out of five matches to secure seventh spot in the first round of the playoffs.
Elphi will match up with Windsor in the first round, a team the Cougars have met twice before and struggled to pull off the wins.
"Hopefully it will be our day. Due to injuries and sickness, the girls will have to play hard as they will be missing some key players. This is the little team that can," said coach Kirsten Storvold. "We have a roster of 16 girls and only eight girls travel for league games. Sometimes it is hit and miss to how the girls will play.
"This is a developmental team as just under half the girls have really never played competitive volleyball before. All the girls work hard, and it has paid off. What we are short on is height, but we make that up in our hustle. We have strong servers, our setters are quick on their feet, we have some power in our hits, and our blockers are always up for a challenge."
The senior girls have also qualified for the North Shore playoffs, and the Grade 8 squad, which does not compete in the North Shore league, won a tournament two weeks ago in Burnaby.
