That small private school on No. 5 road continues to shine on B.C. high school volleyball’s biggest stage.
For the second straight year, the Richmond Christian Eagles have finished second at the B.C. Junior Boys Championships, held last weekend in Kelowna.
Making this accomplishment even more impressive is the tournament features schools of all sizes. Organizers considered this year’s event one of the deepest ever field of contenders.
That was reflected in the sixth-ranked Eagles’ road to the final. Remarkably, they were pushed to deciding third sets in every single match. This was a new challenge for a team that dropped only one set during their entire regular season and playoffs en route to winning both the Richmond and Vancouver and Districts Championships. The boys showed their grit and determination to come out on top in every one of those matches.
Their path to the silver medal included round-robin wins over Mt. Boucherie (24-26, 25-23, 15-7), St. George’s (25-20, 20-25, 15-12) and Kelly Road (25-20, 20-25, 15-9). They opened the championship round by rallying to beat Duchess Park (19-25, 25-18, 15-9), then got past Abbotsford Christian, 26-24, 15-25, 16-14. It was another epic match in the semi-finals against South Surrey’s Earl Marriott, winning 25-22, 20-25, 15-10.
In a highly entertaining and competitive best-of-five championship match, they ultimately fell to the fourth-ranked George Elliot Secondary School from Lake Country 3-1 (24-26, 19-25, 29-27, 25-17).
Anthony Dy Ning, team captain Elijah Kim, and Martin Prinsloo were tournament all-star team selections. The team also features: Joel Ketler, Patrick Creighton, Jason Zhai, Andrew Combs, Caleb James, Dru Jao, Alvin Kam, Eli Krause, Jackson Campbell Enoch Chew and Romain Tourvielle. The boys were coached by Karen Prinsloo and assistant Rick Suderman.
The Eagles are well-positioned to deliver a pair of B.C. School Sports provincial championship banners for at least the next couple of years as this group moves up to the senior ranks and they compete in their own size classification.
