Cedars girls will soak up provincial experience

Fresh from clinching their ninth straight north central zone single-A girls volleyball championship, the Cedars Christian Eagles head to Nanaimo this week as underdogs – just like they were a couple weekends ago at the zone tournament.

The Eagles are ranked 14th at the 20-team provincial tournament which starts Thursday.

Cedars was seeded third in zones behind the Fort St. James Falcons and Lakes District Lakers but turned it on in the playoffs to retain the title.

“Going into the season we were really young with seven Grade 10s and just two Grade 12s on a nine-player team but they grew all season,” said Eagles head coach Jeff Ludditt.

“Going into the zone tournament we had lost a couple in a row to Fort St. James and they have a really experienced team and were top-ranked going in. We lost to them in the round robin and I was even more unsure but we ended up beating Northside in two (sets) pretty handily.”

The Eagles went the distance in the final over Fort St. James, winning the fifth and final set 15-8. Both teams snagged provincial berths.

“It was really a growing experience for the girls, I was really impressed,” said Ludditt. “I was a little shocked but also very happy and very proud of them. They did so well.”

Cedars middle blocker Abigail Worthington was the zone MVP and setter Hailey Gilkerson was an allstar, as was Grade 10 power hitter Maillee Taylor.

As unexpected as winning the zone title was, Ludditt is not going to rule out his team winning its share this week in Nanaimo.

“We’re going in 14th and I don’t know what to think and where we’ll be because they surprised me at zones,” said Ludditt. “We’re kind of thinking we’re playing for the next two years but we’ve got also got the two Grade 12s (Worthington and offside hitter/middle blocker Lindsay Hempstead) I want to play for this year too.”

The other team members are Anna Worthington, Jayden Bergstrom, Noelle Aitken, Eryn Isaac and Trinitee Orton.