Mount Sentinel gets some payback en route to fifth place finish at Provincials
By The Nelson Daily Sports
A very gifted, but young, Mount Sentinel Wildcats team finished fifth overall at the B.C. High School A Girl’s Volleyball Championships Saturday in Duncan giving the fans a tasted of better things ahead.
The Cats rallied from an earlier tournament defeated to put some hurt on the White Rock Christian Warriors 2-0 in consolation round action.
Mount Sentinel won 25-19, 25-22.
“We went into tournament seeded fourth, so fifth is satisfying,” said Mount Sentinel head coach Joe Moreira.
In 2012, the Wildcats won the bronze medal.
Kelowna Christian defeated crosstown rival Immaculata 3-1 in the final to repeat as Single-A Girl’s champs.
The match against White Rock allowed the Kootenay Zone Champs to get a little payback for an earlier round robin loss.
“I guess it was our turn to pay back,” Moreira explained.
“(White Rock) had kicked our butts in pool play and that outcome certainly had our attention. We played like we had something to prove (to ourselves). This was one of our steadiest matches in the tournament.”
Mount Sentinel concluded the round robin draw with a 2-1 record.
The Cats then escaped the opening round of the playoffs against Kootenay rival Fernie to win in three games.
“We were lucky to escape with a win in the 1st play-off round . . . we were down 0-2 to Fernie and found a way to win the next 3, including 15-13 in the fifth,” he said.
“The best description was that the fear of losing prevailed for the most part.”
In quarterfinal round action, the young Wildcats gained some much needed experience for future years during a 3-0 best-of-five loss.
“Although we lost 3 – 0, we played well,” Moreira said.
“We had beaten Cedar Christian in the same round last year and they were determined to “pay back!”. They did and congrats to them.”
Mount Sentinel then disposed of Richmond Christian 2-0 in a very easy match before the final encounter against White Rock.
The tournament site shifts to Immaculata for 2014 before Mount Sentinel, with a graduating group of Grade 12s, hosts the championships in 2015.
No doubt this team volleyball players will be well-seasoned by then to challenge the province.
