By Don Urquhart, Times Chronicle
The Osoyoos Secondary School (OSS) Senior Girls volleyball team staged a comeback from a shaky start on Thursday to place 6th overall out of 16 teams at the ‘A’ Provincial Championships at Cedars Christian School in Prince George.
Playing Ebenezer (Smithers) on Saturday morning the OSS Rattlers beat them 25-21, and 25-23. “We were down 18-9 and came back to win 25-21,” said John Swanson, Head Coach of the team. He added that it was an “amazing come back performance by the ladies. We then had a very competitive second set pulling ahead at the very end. “
“They all have amazing hearts and never quit attitudes and continue to represent the Osoyoos school extremely well on and off the court,” the coach said.
The team lost their game today (Saturday) against St. Ann’s (Kamloops) in two straight sets (25-19 and 25-19). This put them in sixth place out of 16 teams which Swanson said, “is a great placing for our team!”
Credo Christian High School from Langley emerged as Provincial Champions beating Tsawwassen’s Southpointe Academy in the finals.
Their comeback is also after a tough start on Thursday which saw the Rattlers lose to both Ebenezer (Smithers) and St. Ann’s (Kamloops). “We won the first set in both matches but then couldn’t keep the momentum going to close out either match,” Swanson said.
“We were fortunate and played just well enough to win our last match of the day against Lions Gate (North Vancouver) winning in two straight sets (25-23, 25-20).
“We had great play from Paige Kominski who was an offensive threat in every set we played. She was exceptional as a server, serve receiver, defender and finisher and kept us in many matches with her excellent play.
“Tessa Fonteyne did a great job setting and using all of our attackers. We will need to greatly reduce errors in serve receive and attacking tomorrow if we are to be successful against stronger competition,” Swanson said on Thursday.
On Friday morning the team played Cedars Christian in a best of 5 match. The Rattlers won the first set 25-23, lost 25-14, won 25-15 and then finished them off 25-23. “It was unbelievably exciting and tense,” the coach said adding that team played better, made far fewer errors and had more players contribute to scoring points.
This put the team into the championship side of the draw and put them up against Immaculata on Friday night.
The team had a tough go against Immaculata, losing three straight sets 25-16, 26-24, and 25-12. “They played quite well and were able to attack very effectively against us. We struggled for the most part passing in serve receive and the weren’t able to put enough pressure on them offensively,” Swanson said.
