A pair of Kelowna teams made it as far as the semifinals before going down to defeat at the Thompson Rivers University boys volleyball tournament last weekend in Kamloops.
The Kelowna Owls, the No. 1 ranked team at the AAA level, and the Okanagan Mission Huskies (AA) finished in a tie for third place at the 24-team event.
After going 3-0 in power pool play, the Owls advanced through the first two rounds of the playoffs before meeting No. 2 Earl Marriott.
KSS won the opener 25-18, but Marriott rebounded to take the next two sets 25-23 and 15-13 in a very tight three-set match.
“Great weekend of volleyball but we fell asleep in the semi finals against a very good team,” said Owls coach Mike Sodaro. “Perhaps this is a loss that will push the boys to work harder in practice to achieve our goal of returning to the provincial championship gold medal match.”
Meanwhile, playing in the same pool as the Owls, the Huskies went 2-1 to place second.
In the playoffs, OKM beat D.P. Todd (No. 8 in AA) , then defeated Delta (AAA) to make it to the semis.
The Huskies met their match in the seminal losing to Steveston-London, a team they had beaten earlier in the tournament.
It was the best-ever result at the TRU tournament for OKM.
“The team is steadily improving, we are beating teams that have beaten us earlier in the season,” said Huskies coach Paul Thiessen. “Victories over four ranked teams do not come easily in our tournaments. Our stamina is improving which is allowing us to go deeper into these events.”
The Mount Boucherie Bears, who went 3-0 in pool play, lost in the quarterfinals on went on to finish fifth.
This weekend, George Elliot will host the Coyotes Classic, featuring the top AA teams in the province.
