Playing in front of a big, noisy hometown crowd created some jitters for the Timberline girls senior volleyball team.
More than 500 people, mostly students, packed the secondary school gymnasium on Friday afternoon as the top-ranked AAA team in the province set out to capture the school’s fifth Island title before heading to the provincials.
Head coach Terry Philp certainly noticed the edge to her team as they took to the court, but the nerves didn’t last long. Timberline lost one close set in the tournament, but it hardly mattered as the squad captured the championship in dominating style.
First victim was Reynolds of Vicitoria, 25-14, 25-14, followed by Frances Kelsey of Mill Bay, 25-7, 25-6.
Nanaimo District gave Timberline its best test, beating the hometown girls 25-23 in the opening set. But then the T-Line offence and defence took over in capturing the final two sets, 25-18 and 15-10, to win the match.
Timberline took top spot in pool play which gave them a bye to the semi-final on Saturday versus St. Michael’s University School of Victoria. But again, the visitors were over-matched in the five-set contest as Timberline swept three straight, 25-12, 25-11 and 25-9.
In the final Saturday evening, in front of another large crowd, Timberline faced Nanaimo again. The local girls wouldn’t drop a set this time as they swept Nanaimo 25-13, 25-20 and 25-19 to claim the Island AAA championship.
Timberline’s Brooklyn Reesor was the most valuable player of the tournament while team-mates Tommi Corder and Sarah Chase were named to the all-star team.
“The entire team played great and I am very proud of them all,” said Philp.
The Island titled cemented Timberline’s number-one rank in B.C. The team’s next stop is Delta for the provincials on Nov. 28-30.
Last year, Timberline placed sixth at the provincials after entering as the ninth seed.
