The Semiahmoo Totems senior girls volleyball team got their season off to a strong start earlier this month, with a bronze-medal finish at the UBC Mizuno Invitational high school tournament.
The Totems defeated the Okanagan’s George Elliot Secondary 2-0 (25-20, 26-24) in the third-place game.
“It was good to get a medal out of a tournament like this,” Totems coach Gord Houchen told Peace Arch News.
“It was a good start (to the season).”
In round-robin play, Semiahmoo earned victories over North Vancouver’s Handsworth Royals, 2-1; Campbell River’s Carihi Secondary, 2-1; while dropping a game against the defending B.C. quad-A champion Kelowna Owls, 2-1.
In the playoffs, Semiahmoo opened with a 2-0 victory over Burnaby North, and followed up with a win over Vancouver’s Little Flower Academy in quarter-final action. In the latter match, the Totems won the first game, but trailed in the second 14-11 before storming back to win 16-14, with Bo Stephen serving the winning point.
“It was a good comeback – pretty exciting,” Houchen said.
The semifinal was a rematch against Handsworth, with the Royals getting the better of the South Surrey team this time around. The Totems won the first game before Handsworth won the next two.
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In other semifinal, Kelowna defeated George Elliot, and then went on to capture the title with a win over Handsworth in the final.
The senior girls volleyball regular season begins next week (Sept. 23), with local teams in action for the first time on Wednesday (Sept. 25), when Semiahmoo squares off against Surrey Christian and Earl Marriott and Elgin Park hit the court in an all-South Surrey showdown.
As well this year, Elgin Park has moved up to the quad-A level – joining EMS and Semiahmoo – after playing in recent years at triple A. This season also sees the creation of a ‘Premier League’ among senior girls sides, in which the top teams from all divisions are grouped together during the regular season, only to return to their respective divisions – triple A, double-A and the like – in time for playoffs.
At the quad-A level, Cloverdale’s Lord Tweedsmuir Secondary, Semiahmoo, Earl Marriott, Elgin Park and Delta’s Seaquam are all listed among the top-10 provincial rankings, while Pacific Academy and Southridge are ranked at the double-A level.
sports@peacearchnews.com
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