Cats qualify for provincials after stunning tournament run at Kootenay Zone A Girl's Championships
By The Nelson Daily Sports
By Bruce Fuhr
The Nelson Daily Sports
The Mount Sentinel Wildcats have qualified for the B.C. High School A Girl’s Volleyball Championships.
If someone on the street said this in passing a few years ago the response would have been, “so what . . . that’s nothing new. Mount Sentinel goes all the time.”
However, after having a 23-year streak snapped last season, and struggling most of the current high school campaign with a young team, getting back to the provincial tournament was not a guarantee for the 2011 Wildcats.
Mount Sentinel proved all the critics wrong, rising up to the challenge to finish second at the Kootenay High School A Girl’s Volleyball Zone Final Saturday in Fernie.
The Cats lost out in the final to zone power Golden Eagles 25-22, 25-18, 25-21 in the championship match.
But the final result meant nothing, other than better rankings, as the Wildcats had already qualified for the provincials.
“We qualified,” head coach Joe Moreira told The Nelson Daily Sunday morning.
“The Kootenay A girl’s finals provided the drama that many anticipated.” Moreira added. “With five legitimate teams playing for 3 ½ berths in the field of eight, someone was going to get left out.
“Initially, it looked like we were going to be the 1st victims.”
During a stretch from 1991 to 2009 Mount Sentinel teams won four provincial titles — 1997, 2002, 2004, 2007 — and finished second or third eight times.
After sweeping Kaslo’s J.V. Humphries top open preliminary play, the Cats faced an uphill battle against Selkirk Storm of Kimberley.
The East Kootenay squad, like their name, stormed out to a quick 8-0 advantage.
Despite creeping back into the game the Cats dropped the opener 25-21.
The better play gave the South Slocan school confidence and the Cats won the next two games 25-21, 15-10 to capture the match.
“This was a pivotal match because it meant that the cross over the next day was going to be much easier,” Moreira explained.
The final round robin match was a loss to Golden, 25-22, 25-18.
But Moreira & Company got what they wanted by finishing second in the pool — an easier opponent, Grand Forks Wolves, to open Saturday’s playoff round.
Mount Sentinel won the quarterfinal 3-0 to advance into the final.
Meanwhile, Selkirk and Elkford — runner up in Pool B — slugged it out in another quarterfinal match.
“That was an epic battle that Elkford won 25-22, 25-23, 25-23), eliminating Selkirk,” said Moreira.
In semi final action, the Cats once again got off to a slow start, falling behind 8-0.
Once again there was no panic in the Mount Sentinel camp as the Cats rallied to win the first game of the best-of-five match 25-18.
Mount Sentinel won the second game 25-17 before finishing off the Falcons 25-21.
The game was tied 20-20 down the stretch.
The Cats, joining Golden and bronze medal-winner Elkford as the three Kootenay reps, now have a couple of weeks to prepare for the long journey to Prince George, site of the B.C. High School A Girl’s Volleyball Championships Dec. 1-3 at the University of Northern B.C.
Fernie, the four-place finisher after losing to Elkford, now meets Okanagan/Similkameen No. 3 in a playoff for the B.C. tournament final berth.
Two teams from Mount Sentinel qualify for provincials
The girl’s join the boys from Mount Sentinel at the provincials.
Glen Campbell’s crew got past Castlegar’s Stanley Humphries Rockers and the J. Lloyd Crowe Hawks of Trail to capture the West Kootenay AA Boy’s Zone title Wednesday at the Mount Sentinel gymnasium.
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