Oak Bay Barbers carry off provincial volleyball title

It was a close shave, but the Oak Bay Barbers delivered yet another triple-A senior boy’s provincial volleyball crown on Saturday night, squeaking by the Mt. Boucherie Bears 15-9 in the fifth and deciding set at the Langley Events Centre.

Meanwhile at B.C. Place, the Mount Douglas Rams were hoping to win their fourth B.C. Subway Bowl triple-A senior boy’s football title in five years and led 21-17 at halftime over the Vancouver College Fighting Irish.

Due to a very late start, the final score was not available by press time (go to timescolonist.com).

The junior varsity Rams dropped a 48-29 decision to the New Westminster Hyacks in that gridiron championship.

In volleyball, Oak Bay was powered by the hitting of Nick Mickelberry and Madhu McConnell and received key blocks from Cole Beevor-Potts in defeating the Bears 20-25, 25-11, 25-23, 21-25 and 15-9 in the clincher.

“I’m so happy for the kids,” said coach Al Carmichael, who is now tied with Rod Belinski for second place in all-time triple-A championships with five. Carmichael led the Barbers to crowns in 2006, 2011 and 2012 and also won in 1988 with Mount Douglas.

“Nick was pretty much on life support in that fifth set and on his knees. Everybody stepped up and played their best. It wasn’t an easy task, that’s for sure,” said Carmichael, whose Barbers knocked off the No. 3-, 1- and 2 seeds along the way.

The Dover Bay Dolphins defeated Moscrop 2-1 (18-25, 25-23, 17-15) in the bronze medal game to claim the school’s first-ever medal. Earlier, Oak Bay downed Dover Bay 3-1 (19-25, 25-20, 26-24, 25-18) in the semifinals.

The Oak Bay Breakers senior girls lost the quadruple-A semifinal in three sets to Earl Marriott and in the bronze medal game dropped a 2-0 result (25-19, 25-15) to the Riverside Rapids at Vancouver Island University. The host Dover Bay Dolphins girls finished sixth.

In football, Gideone Kremler was hoping to lead the Rams to two championships as the Grade 9 quarterback suited up in both games. He did throw for four touchdown passes — three to Connor Clarke and one to Dante Carbone — and ran for more than 100 yards in the junior varsity loss.

Kremler was not the only member of the JV team to play in both championships as Jake Ounsted, Soren Hallschmid, Mateo Hallschmid, Isaiah Cardilicchia, Ben Pierik and Phil Grohovac were all asked to suit up in the senior outing.