Wildcats ride home crowd all the way to bronze medal at A-Girls Volleyball Championships
By Bruce Fuhr
All season the Mount Sentinel Wildcats sat third in the B.C. High School A Girl’s Volleyball top ten poll.
The pollsters must have done their homework as the Cats rode home crowd support en route to a 2-0 win over White Rock Christian in the bronze medal match at the B.C. High School A Girl’s Volleyball Championships Saturday at the Selkirk College Gymnasium in Castlegar.
“We wanted to play well in this tournament and I’m really proud of everyone,” said Mount Sentinel captain Lynnea Carr minutes after the Cats defeated White Rock Christian to finish third overall in the 16-team tournament.
“Third is a great way to end and I’m definitely happy. Winning bronze is a great way to end my high school career.”
Kelowna Christian Knights from the Central Okanagan swept crosstown rival Immaculata Mustangs 3-0 to repeat at provincial champions.
Kelowna Christian did not lose a match throughout the entire tournament, winning the 2012 crown 25-10, 25-22, 25-21.
The Wildcats won the best-of-three match 25-21, 25-19 and received contribution from every player on the team.
From the setting and leadership of Carr to the back row play of senior Jessie Rehwald and Grade 10 Kyra Makortoff, to the serving of Breanne Minor and Malin Chernoff and to the kills from lefty Kaitlin Minvielle and saves from Zahra Askary, the Cats put it all together in front of a boisterous home crowd.
“Ya this is really exciting . . . it feels like first,” Rehwald, who joined sister Madia as the sixth sister combination to play for the varsity girl’s team at Mount Sentinel.
“Everyone just played their best for us in this game.”
The last sister act at Mount Sentinel, the Wayling sisters, Kendra and Katie, powered the school to its most recent provincial crown in 2007.
Mount Sentinel led from start to finish in game one of the bronze final to capture the momentum in the match.
In game two, White Rock took the early lead but solid serving by Chernoff rallied the Kootenay Champs back into the lead.
Mount Sentinel maintained its slim margin before putting the icing on the cake when Chernoff hammered home a kill after Carr’s quick set.
The play sent the home supporters into a frenzy.
“Our serving and our passing and keeping the ball off the net because (White Rock) has some tall players we had to deal with,” Carr said when asked about the keys to winning the match.
The win was some payback for the Cats after losing to White Rock during the round robin draw Thursday at the LVR Hangar in Nelson.
The loss forced the Cats, finishing second in the division, to take an alternate route to the playoff round.
Mount Sentinel defeated Fernie Falcons before dumping Cedar Christian of Prince George Friday. The Wildcats won each match 3-0.
In semi final play Saturday, the Cats lost 3-0 to Kelowna Christian.
“I feel like this was a redemption game . . . it was a little bit of payback because we didn’t play very well the first time we played White Rock,” Carr explained.
“We weren’t playing very well (Thursday) and it was kind of like we needed to lose . . .. It was better off to lose earlier in the tournament.”
Selkirk Storm of Kimberley finished sixth while Fernie Falcons took home 11th spot. Salmo Falcons finished 16th after losing to Glynlyon Norfolk of Vancouver Island.
The championships mark the ninth time the South Slocan-based school has been the feature site of the provincial tournament since 1991.
Mount Sentinel has won four titles since 1997, the last coming in 2007.
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