The St. Albert Skyhawks are seeded No. 1 in the eight-team 3A zone women’s volleyball tournament this weekend at the SkyDome and Edmonton Christian High School.
Friday’s pool A matches and Saturday’s crossover playoffs are scheduled for the SkyDome. The final is 3 p.m. and both teams advance to provincials, Nov. 22 to 24 in Camrose.
In Friday’s pool A draw the Skyhawks play the St. Peter the Apostle Spartans of Spruce Grove at 2 p.m., Ardrossan Bisons at 4:15 p.m. and Louis St. Laurent Barons at 7 p.m.
The top three teams in both pools move on Saturday’s playoff round. The semifinals are 12:15 p.m. and 1:15 p.m.
All matches are best-of-three affairs.
The top four seeds include the Holy Trinity Trojans at No. 2, Ardrossan at No. 3 and the Edmonton Christina Lions at No. 4.
The Skyhawks (9-1) are coming off their first loss in the metro Edmonton premier conference, 25-18, 18-25, 20-25, 25-22, 6-15 to the Bisons in Friday’s semifinal at the SkyDome.
The Bisons (7-4), the two-time defending Lions Western Canadian Challenge tournament champions, lost Saturday’s premier final in three sets to the Bev Facey Falcons (10-1).
The road to the provincial final ended Saturday afternoon in Bonnyville for the St. Albert 49ers.
The hometown Bandits racked up 48 unanswered points in the first half against the Tier 3 bantam champions in the Capital District Minor Football Association, en route to a convincing 61-7 victory in the north final.
Kris Akkerman scored the 49ers’ touchdown on a 70-yard run in the fourth quarter on a greasy, chewed up field.
“The frozen icy field conditions had a very definite impact on the outcome of the game, something they were obviously accustomed to and equipped for, while we weren’t,” said head coach Randy Guy. “It’s unfortunate that Football Alberta has us playing on a school field of frozen dirt and ice, when we have so many artificial turf fields available across the province.”
The loss was only the second in nine games for the 49ers.
“The final score certainly didn’t reflect our team’s ability or effort. It was a tough way to end the season. We are very proud of the effort our kids put in and what they achieved as a team this year,” Guy said.
The Bellerose Bulldogs lost Saturday’s final in three sets to the Austin O’Brien Crusaders in the metro Edmonton junior women’s city conference volleyball playoffs.
In league play the Crusaders placed fourth at 8-3 and the Bulldogs were seventh at 6-5.
In the second-last match before the playoffs the Crusaders beat the Bulldogs 3-1 at Bellerose
The Bulldogs went on to sweep the Louis St. Laurent Barons (8-3) before knocking off the third-place Leduc Tigers (8-3) in five sets in the quarter-finals and the Barons in three sets in the semifinals. All three wins were on the road.
The last city championship for the junior lady Bulldogs was in 2010.
