After three years of building into a club provincial powerhouse, the 15-and-under Kodiaks Red girls volleyball team seized its opportunity to climb to the medal podium.
Continuing on their success this season after wining Super Series tournaments in Langley and Kelowna, the Kodiaks won the Division 1 bronze medal at the provincial championship in Abbotsford.
Representing the Prince George Youth Volleyball Club, the Kodiaks went 4-2 at the tournament, wrapping up their weekend with a 2-0 (25-18, 25-23) match victory over Seaside Surf of Surrey in the bronze-medal match.
The Kodiaks were ranked No. 1 in the province and went 2-1 in the preliminary round and won their pool. They defeated Thunder Blue of Vancouver 2-0 (25-11, 25-10) in a quarterfinal playoff and in the semifinals took on T2 Volleyball Club of West Kelowna and lost 2-1 (25-11,18-25, 13-15).
T2 went on to beat Velocity of South Surrey for gold.
“That semifinal was an epic match, it was pretty cool,” said Kodiaks head coach Cam Young. “It was an unreal atmosphere in the centre court, probably the best atmosphere I’ve seen for a long time with our boys teams out cheering for us.
“We hadn’t played (T2) this year. They lost in the other (Super Series) semifinal in Kelowna but then they got one of their better power hitters back from a broken hand. They went in seeded quite low but they finished third in the province last year They were just a couple points better, a couple of mistakes here and there and it could have been us.”
The Kodiaks Red girls roster includes Sophie O’Rourke, Macyn Unger, Brooklyn Van Camp, Ashleigh Evans, Taryn Atkinson, Karynn Hampe, Taylor Salton, Rachel Young, Claire Brown, Sophie Martin, Emily Bast and Kendra Nicholson. Mackenzie Van Spengen, Jordan Drezet, Keith Hampe and J.P. Martin are the team’s assistant coaches.
The core of the Kodiaks has been together for three seasons and they finished 11th in B.C. the previous two years. They will be among 161 teams entered in the 15U/16U club national championships in Edmonton, May 17-19.
“We’ll probably go into nationals as the No. 2-ranked B.C. team because Velocity is not going,” said Young.
The 15U boys Kodiaks coached by Glenn Wong and David Ohori also entered the Division 1 tournament and just missed the provincial podium, finishing fourth overall. The 15U boys went 2-1 in the preliminary round, won their first two playoff matches over Air Attack of Abbotsford and Fraser Valley, then lost in the semifinal 2-0 (25-18, 25-16) to Apex Ignite of Vancouver.
In the battle for bronze, Sky Black of Vernon defeated the Kodiaks 2-0 (25-16, 25-21).
The 15U Kodiak boys roster includes Alexandros Thanos, Logan Hirvi, Ian Platzer, Emanuel Adefisayo, Jared Ebert, Griffin Olexyn, John Flores, Colby Hoy, Jared Nelson, Logan Kolybaba, James Brown and Isaiah Ohori.
Five other Prince George Youth Volleyball Cub teams competed in the provincial championships last weekend in Abbotsford:
• 16U Kodiaks Red boys, coached by Jacob Tiani and Joel Ingham, finished eighth in Division 1, after going 0-3 in the preliminary round and 1-3 in the playoffs;
• 16U Kodiaks Black girls, coached by Jason Florell and Jay Guillet, finished 10th in Division 1 (0-3 preliminary, 1-2 playoffs);
• 16U Kodiaks Black boys, coached by Stacey Joyce and Alex Benny, placed 10th in Division 2 (1-2 preliminary, 0-2 playoffs);
• 16U Kodiaks Black girls, coached by Dayna Long, finished 15th in Division 2 (0-3 preliminary, 1-2 playoffs);
• 15U Kodiaks Black girls, coached by Tracy, Natalie and Amanda Heinze, placed 16th in Division 2 (1-2 preliminary, 0-3 playoffs).
Five PGYVC teams will be in Abbotsford this weekend for the 13U and 14U club provincial championships which start Friday.
