The U16 Blaze are now ranked fifth in the province after capturing the Prince George Super Series tournament last weekend.
The girls' squad, part of the Sunshine Coast Volleyball Club, is having a tremendous year and hopes are high for even better results.
"We are an extremely confident team right now and feel that we are capable of beating any team in the province," said coach Quinn Campbell, who shares coaching responsibilities with Jan Richey.
"With the provincial championships coming up in Kelowna at the end of the month as well as the national championships in Calgary this May, we are looking forward to more terrific results."
Last weekend's event in Prince George was the last of the five tournaments in the Volleyball B.C. Super Series.
The top five teams in B.C. are ranked based on their results in these events. As well, points are earned at the Super Series events, which qualify the top eight teams directly to the Tier 1A division at the provincial championships. The remaining eight spots in the Tier 1A division are awarded to teams that win their zone qualifier.
There were 11 teams at last weekend's event, which brought together the top teams from the Interior and Northern B.C.The Blaze was the only team in Prince George from the Lower Mainland/Vancouver Island/South Coast area.
"We dominated virtually every match we played on Saturday in our pool, except our last match of the day, where we came out flat and lost a close match to the Prince George Red Fury," added Campbell. "The loss resulted in a second place finish in our pool. We regained our top form for the playoffs and cruised through the quarter finals and semifinals with lop-sided wins over two teams from Prince George."
In the final, the Blaze met up with the Fury again. This time, however, the Blaze came out firing on all cylinders, winning the first two sets by two and three points respectively. Then won the third set by two after staving off a late Prince George charge.
"Although everyone played well, Kyla Richey was easily the best player of the tournament with 26 kills in seven matches and a very impressive 59 per cent attack efficiency," Campbell said. "Rachel Van Wersch was solid offensively all weekend and was outstanding passing and on defence. Kellie Gibson had a terrific weekend playing in a new position and served consistently for us in many tough situations."
Campbell wanted to pay special recognition to Paul Saunders at Custom Carpet for sponsoring the team, enabling the Blaze to make the trip to Prince George.
The Blaze are now in fifth spot in the rankings, following closely behind the Kamloops Demons and XVC from Burnaby in third. The top ranked team is Air Attack from Richmond.
The Blaze are the top team in this year's club, which also has a U13 team (Grade 6/7), a U14 team (Grade 8), one other U16 team (Grade 9/10) and a U18 team. For the first time this year, the club also has two U14 boys' teams.
"We've seen steady growth over the years and I wish we'd have a few more coaches so we could have more teams," Campbell said. "We started with one team in 1997, so we've come a long way since then. Our other teams are doing alright, but [the Blaze] is clearly the top team."
