The Langley Fundamental Titans came up one match short of making it a sweep for their senior volleyball teams.
The senior girls squad lost 3-1 in the championship final to Victoria’s Lambrick Park Lions at the B.C. provincial AA volleyball championships, which were held at Surrey’s Pacific Academy from Nov. 27 to Nov. 30.
A victory would have matched the senior boys squad, which won the AA crown in Kelowna (see page 41).
“We went in with a goal of winning provincials, but we knew we were up against a lot of great teams,” said coach Laura O’Reilly, adding that five or six of the 16 teams in attendance had a legitimate shot of playing for the gold medals.
“I think the girls were happy to be in the gold medal match. They played their hearts out and gave it everything they had.”
O’Reilly said Lambrick Park played phenomenal all tournament.
In the finals, the Lions smoked the Titans 25-11 in the opening set. But Langley Fundamental evened the match at one with a 25-20 set two victory.
That was the first set the Lions lost in the past six weeks as every other match was a sweep.
And while the next two sets did not go their way, the Titans were close in both, losing 28-26 and 25-23.
The team was disappointed to come one match short of a provincial title, but O’Reilly was impressed with how her team played over the season’s final month, which included a Fraser Valley championship banner.
“I have never seen a team come together and peak like they did,” she said.
The Titans had won their pool with a 3-0 record, defeating York House, Hatzic and Surrey Christian. They did not drop a single set in the best-of-three matches.
In the crossover playoff game and quarter-finals, Langley Fundamental beat Selkirk and St. Patrick’s, again without losing a set in the best-of-five matches.
The semifinals provided the Titans with a stiff test as they faced one of their main rivals, Pacific Academy.
The teams traded sets with Langley Fundamental winning the first and third sets 25-21 and 26-24 while Pacific Academy took sets two and four 25-19 and 25-20, respectively.
The fifth and deciding set was 15-12 for the Titans.
The Titans’ Brie O’Reilly was named a first team all-star while Kim Bauder was a second team all-star.
•••••
It was a tough go at the B.C. AAA senior girls volleyball championships for the Brookswood Bobcats.
The ’Cats went winless until their final game, placing 15th at the tournament, which was held at Surrey’s Seaquam Secondary.
Brookswood beat Fraser Valley rival Rick Hansen Hurricanes in their final game.
The victory was redemption of sorts for the Bobcats as Hansen had beat them two weeks ago in the Fraser Valley championships bronze medal match.
