It had been 20 years since Brian Drosdovech coached the Immaculata Mustangs to the school’s first ever B.C. high school girls A volleyball title.
And despite assembling many more strong teams in the two decades since, it wasn’t until Saturday night that Drosdovech’s Mustangs found themselves back on top.
In a dramatic final inside a raucous Immaculata gym, the Mustangs needed all five sets (25-19, 18-25, 22-25, 25-22, 15-12) to defeat the Langley Christian Lightning in the B.C. championship final.
After slipping behind two sets to one, the Mustangs trailed in the fourth and looked to be in danger of losing the match. But a determined Immaculata squad rallied back to win the fourth set, then completed the comeback in the fifth to capture the 16-team event.
Drosdovech, who promoted assistant coach Kasandra Palmer to the role of head coach for the provincials, said the Mustangs showed character en route to the gold medal.
“We kind of lost our way in the fourth set, but the girls battled back,” said Drosdovech. “They’ve been doing that all season. Then in the fifth, we were down 8-7 at the switch, but the girls just kept chipping away. They did a great job to finish it off.”
The Mustangs have been knocking on the door for the last several years, winning a pair of bronze medals in 2010 and 2011, and silvers in 2012 and 2013 when they ran up against their local rivals, the Kelowna Christian Knights.
Drosdovech said the 2014 edition of the Mustangs is a unique group.
“It was nice for the girls who had been so close before to win this,” he said. “We’ve had some outstanding teams in the past, and I would say most were more emotional teams than this one.
“With these girls sometimes you wondered if they had a heartbeat,” he explained. “No rah, rah…they just went out and played and went about their business. Maybe a little cheer here and there, but just a very cool and calm team.”
Megan Hart, the Mustangs’ 6-foot-4 power hitter, was named the tournament’s MVP.
Teammates Gemma Davies and Natalie Livingston were named first-team all-stars, while Emma Johnson was a second-team all-star and Immaculata’s Kyra Cabral was named the best defensive player.
The rest of the B.C. champion Mustangs are Ashley Prehofer, Sarah Parkes, Morgan Painchaud, Katie Speiss, Nicole Hart and Amanda Grant, who was injured for the provincials.
Meanwhile, next season will be Drosdovech’s 25th and final season at the helm of the senior girls’ team. He’ll move over to Immaculata’s junior program where he’ll devote more time to developing young players.
It’s Drosdovech’s hope that Kasandra Palmer—a former Mustangs’ player—will eventually assume the full-time role as Immaculata’s head coach.
“It’s been great, but 25 years is a long time, it’s time for someone else to take this on,” he said. “My forte is developing kids, so that’s what I’ll be focusing on.”
Meanwhile, Kelowna’s Aberdeen Hall Gryphons, ranked 14th heading into provincials, improved their standing with a ninth-place showing.
Aberdeen Hall knocked off the defending champion KCS Knights in the 9th/10th place (consolation) match.
