The round-robin draw for the 17th annual Lions Western Canadian Challenge high school volleyball tournament swings into action Thursday at 1 p.m. in St. Albert and Morinville.
Twenty-four men’s and 24 women’s teams are entered. Local teams include the Bellerose Bulldogs, St. Albert Skyhawks, Sturgeon Spirits and the Morinville Wolves, the tournament hosts. The out-of-province teams are the Killarney Cougars of Vancouver in the men’s pool and the North Battleford Vikings in the women’s pool.
The R.F. Staples Thunderbirds of Westlock will defend their men’s title. A new women’s champion will be crowned with the Paul Kane Blues not returning.
Saturday’s playoff round starts at 8 a.m. The top two finishers in the four men’s and four women’s pools advance to the round of 16. In the medal round, Bellerose Composite High School hosts the women’s semifinals at 5:30 p.m., the third-place match at 7 p.m. and the final at 8 p.m. Morinville Community High School is the venue for the men’s semifinals at 5:30 p.m., the third-place match at 7 p.m. and the final at 8 p.m. The consolation finals are 7 p.m. at Vincent J. Maloney School for the women and St. Albert Catholic High School for the men.
Round-robin matches will also be played at Georges H. Primeau School.
Visit www.mchs.gsacrd.ab.ca/wcc/ for the tournament line-up.
The St. Albert High Skyhawks and Paul Kane Blues close out their Carr Conference schedules Thursday in metro Edmonton high school football.
The Skyhawks visit the Bev Facey Falcons at 7:30 p.m. at Strathcona Athletic Park. In the Football Alberta rankings, the Skyhawks (2-3 in Carr; 2-4 overall) are listed fifth in tier III and Facey (3-0-2 in Carr; 4-0-2 overall) is third in tier I.
The final game of the season for the first-year Blues kicks off at 7:30 p.m. against the Austin O’Brien Crusaders at Johnny Bright Park. The Blues (0-5 in Carr; 1-5 overall) were eliminated from playoff contention in last week’s 15-0 loss to the Blues. The Crusaders (4-0-1 in Carr; 6-0-1 overall) are the top tier II team in the province.
The Bellerose Bulldogs (2-4 in Carr; 2-6 overall) have a bye week. The Bulldogs and Skyhawks have spots locked up in Tuesday’s opening playoff round. Depending on the outcome of Thursday’s games, including the Salisbury Sabres (3-1-1 in Carr; 6-1-1 overall) versus the Archbishop Jordan Scots (2-3 in Carr; 3-2 overall), the Bulldogs and Skyhawks will play at 6 p.m. at the Riel Park turf field or 7:30 p.m. at Clarke Park.
If the Bulldogs, Skyhawks and Scots finish tied for fourth place, the Bulldogs will huddle up against the Sabres and the Skyhawks will battle the Scots in the playoffs. The tiebreaker formula is points for and against between the three teams in games against each other.
