The Ardrossan Bisons and Edmonton Christian Lions were the big winners at the 18th annual Lions Western Canadian Challenge high school volleyball tournament.
Saturday night the Bisons repeated as the women’s champions at Bellerose Composite High School and the Lions roared to victory in the men’s final at Morinville Community High School.
The Bisons, a metro Edmonton premier conference team, hung tough to defeat Spirit River Regional Academy Renegades 27-25, 17-25, 15-9.
The Edmonton public league Lions swept the St. Francis Xavier Rams 25-15, 25-21.
The tournament featured 24 men’s and 24 women’s teams, including the Bellerose Bulldogs, St. Albert Skyhawks, Sturgeon Spirits and the Morinville Wolves, the tournament hosts.
The best showing by local teams in the playoffs were the lady Skyhawks and Sturgeon men. Both teams were eliminated in the quarter-finals. The Skyhawks (6-0 in premier) lost 20-25, 27-25, 10-5 to the Barrhead Gryphons and Sturgeon (3-2 in premier) fell 17-20, 20-25 to the Lions.
Visit www.mchs.gsacrd.ab.ca/wcc/ for round robin and playoff results.
The Alberta Golden Bears will play the Mount Royal Cougars of Calgary in a pre-season Canadian Interuniversity Sport basketball game Friday at Bellerose Composite High School.
Tipoff is 7 p.m. between the 2012 Canada West champions and the newest CIS team.
Admission is free, but donations will be accepted in support of the St. Albert SLAM Basketball Club.
The Bears will also sign autographs after the game.
Nick Maglisceau, a former high school standout with the Paul Kane Blues and two-time all-Canadian with the Bears, is an assistant coach with the Bears after a successful professional career in Europe.
A number of former high school rugby players from St. Albert and area celebrated a Canada West rugby championship with the Alberta Pandas on Sunday.
The Pandas scored three second-half tries to defeat the Calgary Dinos 20-12 at Ellerslie Rugby Park.
It was the eighth conference title for the Pandas, and their first since winning seven in a row between 1999 and 2005. It was also the program’s 13th consecutive top-two finish in 14 years.
Local Pandas on the 30-player roster include props Stacie Becker and Sara Haring, lock Janelle Romanchuk, back Amy Speers, centre Caitlin Huggard and back row Sabrina Kelly.
The Pandas will now scrum down at the Canadian Interuniversity Sport championship tournament, Nov. 1 to 4 at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, N.S. The Pandas won the Monilex Trophy five straight years, from 1999 to 2003, but are returning to nationals for the first time since finishing sixth in 2008.
