Both Richmond Christian senior volleyball teams are headed to provincials next week and took a historic achievement for one of them to get there.
For the very first time, the Eagles will be competing at the provincial ‘AA’ boys championships after winning last week’s Lower Mainland qualifying tournament. The school has been a fixture at the ‘A’ level for many years but increased enrollment forced them to move up to the higher classification.
The Eagles got past North Vancouver’s Bodwell High and league rival McRoberts to secure their spot at the Langley Events Centre. The tournament runs from Nov. 26-29. The feat is even more impressive given their line-up features 10 players in Grade 11 and three in Grade 10.
“We were ‘AA’ size but just one student so we will be competing against much bigger schools,” said Eagles assistant coach Sigfried Ong.
The boys needed to beat McRoberts for the third time this season to advance.
“McRoberts is a good defensive team and our nerves showed a bit,” added Ong. “I was proud at how our guys pulled together and came through in the end.”
Earlier, Richmond Christian enjoyed an outstanding run in city play, going unbeaten until the championship match where it dropped a home court decision to defending champion Steveston-London.
Meanwhile, the Eagles girls team are headed to Kelowna next month for
B.C. “A” Girls Volleyball Championships.
The Eagles booked their ticket to the Okanagan by capturing last week’s Lower Mainland Zone Championship for the second straight year. Richmond Christian is No. 6 in the latest provincial “A” rankings.
After coming third in the recent Richmond playoffs, the Eagles lived up to their provincial status with an unbeaten run at the Mainland playoffs.
The girls rolled through round-robin play with straight set wins over Carver Christian, Pemberton and hosts St. John’s. The Eagles then got past West Point Grey Academy before defeating North Vancouver’s Mulgrave secondary in the championship match.
The provincials will be hosted by Immaculata Regional High School where Richmond Christian is looking to improve on its seventh place finish from a year ago. The future looks bright for this highly skilled and focused team which has no seniors and will have the entire roster intact next season.
The Eagles roster includes: Juliette Sutter, Emma Burton, Rebekah Prasad, Jaylen Yee, Kaitlynn Lam, Taylor Archibald, Makena Anderson, Madison Fleischer and Leah Goertz Courtney Burkholder, Casey Ting and Hannah Dy Ning. The head coach is Karen Prinsloo and Mike Yee is her assistant.
