Defending champs back in finals

Axemen, Bobcats, Torchettes, Colonels to play for PEISAA senior AAA gold medals

The defending Prince Edward Island School Athletic Association (PEISAA) senior AAA volleyball champions have put themselves in a position to repeat.

The Kensington Torchettes and Three Oaks Axemen pulled out semifinal wins on Wednesday night to secure berths in the gold-medal matches as part of the Grant Thornton-sponsored provincial championships Saturday at Charlottetown Rural High School.

The Torchettes will take on the Colonel Gray Colonels in the girls’ final at 2 p.m., while the Axemen will battle the Bluefield Team One Bobcats for the boys’ title at 4 p.m.

The top-seeded Axemen, who posted a perfect regular-season record of 10-0, rallied for a 3-1 victory over longtime rival Westisle Wolverines (3-7). After Westisle won the first set 25-23 and led 21-16 in the second set, clutch serving by Jack Somers keyed the Axemen’s rally to a 25-22 win to even the match.

Three Oaks jumped out to an 8-1 lead in the third set, but this time the Wolverines refused to quit and battled their way back into the set, before the Axemen prevailed 28-26. Three Oaks then closed out the match winning the fourth set 25-11.

In the other boys’ semifinal at Bluefield, the second-place Bobcats (8-2) prevailed in five sets. Bluefield won 25-17, 25-22 to jump out to a 2-0 lead, but thirdplace Rural (6-4) answered back with set wins of 25-20, 25-23 to send the match to the limit. Bluefield took the fifth set 15-9.

In the quarter-finals played Monday, Westisle posted a 3-1 victory (25-16, 25-20, 16-25, 2519) over Colonel Gray while Rural defeated Montague 3-1 (25-11, 2510, 23-25, 25-19).

Girls

In the girls’ semifinals, the Torchettes and Raiders played a nail-biting five-set thriller (2511, 25-17, 20-25, 23-25, 15-13) at Charlottetown Rural.

At Colonel Gray High School, the host Colonels defeated the Bluefield Team One Bobcats 3-0 (25-17, 26-24, 25-18).

To illustrate just how close the senior AAA girls’ league is this year, the Colonels, Raiders and Torchettes finished in a threeway tie for first place with 10-2 records. Tiebreaking procedures resulted in the Colonels being awarded first place, the Raiders second and Torchettes third. Bluefield Team One and Three Oaks Team One tied for fourth at 5-7.

In Monday’s quarter-finals, host Bluefield edged Three Oaks 3-2 (25-18, 21-25, 21-25, 25-15, 15-4) while Kensington swept visiting Westisle Team One 3-0 (2520, 25-14, 25-18).

Also Saturday at Charlottetown Rural, Bluefield Team One and Charlottetown Rural Team will decide the girls’ bronze-medal match at 10 a.m., and the Wolverines and Charlottetown Rural will meet in the boys’ third-place match at noon.