Eagles golden at volleyball tournament
There were a few tension-filled moments but the Cedars Christian Eagles prevailed in the goldmedal match of the north-central zone high school girls volleyball championship.
With their 3-1 (25-20, 18-25, 2516 and 25-10) over the Chetwynd Cavaliers in Saturday’s final of the single-A championship at CNC, the Eagles advanced to the provincial championship, Nov. 28 to Dec. 1, in Castlegar.
The Cavaliers may also advance, either through a win Tuesday against the second-place team from the northwest zone or through default should their opponent choose not to travel to Prince George for the game.
If the game goes ahead it will be played at CNC at 3:30 p.m.
Eagles setter Megan Karpenko said the Cavaliers were a tough opponent.
“They put up a big fight and we had to work harder than we had in the other games,” said the 15-yearold.
“It’s been a long fight. It’s just awesome teamwork throughout the whole tournament.”
Both the Eagles and Cavaliers entered the final with unblemished records, 5-0 and 6-0 respectively.
There were nine teams entered in the tournament which gave the Cavaliers an extra game to play during the round robin.
In splitting the first two sets of the final the Eagles and Cavaliers matched each other point for point with neither side able to pull away.
But in the third set the Eagles opened up a 15-4 advantage, enough of a lead to fend off their opponents’ attack despite getting outscored 12-10 the rest of the way.
The victory in the third game was set up by the strong serving of Nicole Kragt.
“It’s the best tournament for her by far, she just really pulled through and hit everything,” said Karpenko, no slouch in the service game herself after setting a personal record of 14 straight serves in the Eagles’ win over Tumbler Ridge during round-robin play.
Kayla Gordon, the lone Grade 12 player for the Eagles, notched the final kills in both the third and fourth sets.
In the final set the Cavaliers ran out of gas and couldn’t match the Eagles intensity.
“In the last two sets the girls gave up a little bit,” said Cavaliers coach Helen Toppin.
“They got tired. They weren’t passing the ball after the first pass.”
Karpenko and Kayla Gordon were both named as first-team allstars while libero Shannon Kragt was a second team all-star.
For the Cavaliers, Leah Pfanner and Kristian Leishman were first-team all-stars.
The Fort St. James Falcons took the bronze medal in the tournament.
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