Spartans gracious hosts, Islanders medal

Cedar's senior AA girls finished 14th at provincials in Nanaimo, and the NDSS senior AAA girls won provincial bronze in Vancouver.

Cedar Spartans players Hailey Bradley, left, and Brooke Richmond go for a block against an Elphinstone Cougars opponent during senior AA provincial championships Thursday at the Cedar Community Secondary School gym.

Cedar Spartans players Hailey Bradley, left, and Brooke Richmond go for a block against an Elphinstone Cougars opponent during senior AA provincial championships Thursday at the Cedar Community Secondary School gym.

High school volleyball season ended with positive experiences for the city’s senior girls’ teams.

The Cedar Spartans senior AA girls finished 14th at provincials, held at three Nanaimo schools, and the NDSS Islanders senior AAA girls won provincial bronze medals in Vancouver.

ND, which captured the Island championship last month, defeated Vernon in Saturday’s bronze-medal game at provincials. Little Flower Academy beat Seaquam in the gold-medal match there. The Islanders’ only loss all tournament came in five sets to the eventual provincial champions.

Victoria Behie was selected as a first-team all-star and Danya Nieman was chosen a second-team all-star.

Cedar didn’t have outstanding results on the court, but put on a fine tournament by all accounts, packing the Cedar Community Secondary School gym for Saturday’s final between Kalamalka and Pacific Academy.

Kalamalka won 25-19, 25-19, 26-28, 25-23.

“That was one of the best matches I’ve seen in an awfully long time,” said Bill Rounis, coach of the Spartans.

He said his team, which went into the tourney seeded No. 13, might have felt home-court pressure.

“There was some very, very good teams here and we just couldn’t match up, in a number of ways,” the coach said. “If you look at the scores we were close in a lot of them.”

Cedar won its last match Saturday against Smithers.

sports@nanaimobulletin.com

Nanaimo News Bulletin