The Salmon Arm Jewels came out of Wednesday’s high school women’s rugby match a little tarnished thanks to the visiting Penticton Secondary Lakers.
After a pair of losses earlier in the season to the Jewels, the Lakers turned the tables, coming away with a 29-15 victory in the Okanagan Valley semifinal match.
The Lakers will travel to Mount Boucherie Secondary School next Wednesday to compete in the Valley playoff finals and a chance to go on the provincial championships in Williams Lake.
“It went very, very well. I don’t want to say it was a surprising victory but it was very gratifying to see the girls finally putting a couple of things together and clicking on some stuff we’ve been working on quite hard,” said Lakers first-year coach Ian Butters.
Penticton finished third overall in the standings at the end of the regular season behind Salmon Arm and champion Mount Boucherie, who defeated the fourth place Kelowna team in the other semi.
“We had a bunch of strong showings on our team (against Salmon Arm),” said Butters. “Madison Kulak had a pair of tries and was playing out of position. She normally plays with our backs, and she was playing as a flanker in the forwards and she’s never done that before, and she took to it naturally.”
The provincials are at the end of May.
