Two berths to the provincial championships in Powell River later this month are up for grabs as the Seaton Sonics host the Okanagan Valley High School Senior Girls AAA Volleyball Championships Friday and Saturday.
The Sonics are joined by the Vernon Panthers and Kamloops schools South Kamloops Titans and Valleyview Vikings.
Play gets underway at 1:30 p.m. Friday with the Sonics battling Valleyview and the Panthers facing South Kam.
The all-Vernon showdown takes to Court 2 at Seaton Gym at 2:45 p.m.
Round-robin play wraps up at 4:45 p.m.
The first place team after the preliminary round will play the fourth-place squad in the first semifinal Saturday at 10 a.m., followed by second-vs-third at 11:30 a.m. The two winners meet in the Valley final at 2:30 p.m.
The Sonics’ junior boys team joins Revelstoke as North Zone representatives at this weekend’s Okanagan Valley finals in Kamloops.
The North Zone champion Kalamalka Lakers, along with the Fulton Maroons and Pleasant Valley Saints of Armstrong, are at the Okanagan AA Girls Championships this weekend in the South Okanagan.
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Seaton won the North Zone championship for the second year in a row on their home court this week, capping off an undefeated league run.
Seaton defeated Lumby’s Charles Bloom Timberwolves 25-13, 25-15 in the 1st-vs.-8th matchup. They then had to beat Vernon Secondary Panthers to get into the Valley Championships.
The Panthers had just come off a win against the Fulton Maroons so were warm and ready to go. Seaton came out with 10 hitting and two serving errors in the first game to lose 19-25. But they slowly started to work on their errors and won 25-18. The third game saw Seaton down 11-5, but Jonah Violini served up to 12-11 and then finally they won 16-14.
“It was a very inconsistent match for our boys, which is unfortunately typical of junior volleyball. Kudos goes out to the Panthers who worked really hard to beat us. We were just able to get our game back and we served, passed and hit when we needed to,” said Seaton coach Richard Bedard.
“Carter Scott and Ronan Bedard were rocks for the team when the going was tough, but then the other players started to step up in their roles,” added co-coach Karen Bedard, who also teaches at VSS. “It was hard to see my school’s team lose. The VSS boys put everything they had into that game. I was sorry to not see a backdoor challenge match for them.”
In the final, Seaton played the Revelstoke Rams, who finished off the Vernon Christian Royals in two sets. The Sonics won the match 25-17 and 25-20. Strong play from Ty Louis and Connor Cecchini made a huge difference in the match.
The Seaton junior girls also won the North Zone championship for the second year in a row, and have advanced to the Okanagan finals.
roger@vernonmorningstar.com
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