It took a couple of years longer than they thought but in the end, the Mount Douglas Rams are the AAAA Senior Girls Island Volleyball Champions.
The Rams hosted the tournament last week and redeemed an early round upset at the hands Oak Bay by taking first place with a win over Oak Bay in a straight sets final. Mount Doug and Oak Bay have qualified for the AAAA Senior Girls B.C. Volleyball Championships at Handsworth Secondary in North Vancouver, Dec. 1 to 3.
“It was a tremendous display of high level volleyball with some of the best teams in B.C. competing,” said Mount Doug athletics director Bernie Kidd.
The semifinals featured ‘epic matches’ with Mount Doug narrowly defeating the Belmont Bulldogs in a fifth set tiebreaker, 16-14. Oak Bay also had a five-set semifinal victory over Dover Bay (Nanaimo).
“It was a 2.5-hour marathon,” Kidd said. “Then an hour later, Mount Doug played the talented Oak Bay team.”
It’s the first Island championship for the Mount Doug senior girls since they also won the Islands and provincials in 2002.
Third-place Belmont and fourth-place Dover Bay advanced to an eight-team wildcard tournament at Riverside for the final two AAAA berths at provincials. Saanich schools were prominent in the Islands with Claremont finishing fifth, Spectrum sixth and Reynolds seventh.
The core of the Rams’ team is also a very strong club team that plays in the Victoria Volleyball Association. In 2014 the talented core, then in Grade 10, elected to remain in junior with hopes of winning a provincial title but fell short.