Morning Star Staff
The Sky U18 Boys Blacks of Vernon finished sixth out of 23 teams at the B.C. Club Volleyball Championships last weekend at the Richmond Olympic Oval.
They had three tough matches against Fraser Valley U17s, Victoria U18s and Prince George U18s in the round-robin, and ended up second after a two-set loss to Prince George.
In the round of 16, the Sky crew squared off against the Kelowna U17 KaPow! and pulled out a tight match, winning 25-23, 26-24. This led to a match up in the quarters with Apex KLG Elite and the fifth time these two teams have met this year with each team winning twice.
The match was very entertaining and intense with the Vernon boys rallying from a 12-7 deficit with some exceptional defence and blocking in the deciding third game. At 13-12, the Sky boys blocked a ball against the No. 1 Apex hitter that appeared to veer across the court and go out of bounds off an Apex player.
However, the touch was missed and the referee ruled that the ball was out. That made it 14-12 and the Apex held on. Apex also won 25-21 before losing 21-25.
Sky went on to defeat Victoria again in two straight sets, and then lost to Fraser Valley in the fifth-place match.
“The boys had some really tough matches over the weekend and they didn’t give up,” said coach Richard Bedard. “It has been a great season with them and a great four years that I’ve been involved with majority of these players”
The team members were Danny Aspenlieder, Bryn Bedard, Ryan Doerges, Eric Embleton, Ryan Evans, Caleb Haberstock, Landon Matties, Jacob Molitwenik, Adam Roemer and assistant coach/manager Karen Bedard.
Aspenlieder was selected to the all-star team. as chosen by head coaches of the top-10 teams.