Wolves zone in
The Morinville Wolves served up victories against the Barrhead Gryphons in the North Central zone men’s and women’s volleyball finals for berths at the Alberta Schools’ Athletic Association championships.At the home of the Gryphons on Saturday, the Morinville men rattled off scores of 25-23, 25-23 to repeat as the zone winners and the lady Wolves prevailed 25-22, 25-27, 15-7.
Visit www.stalbertgazette.com to view the group championship picture.
In the men’s draw, Barrhead and Morinville were ranked first and second, respectively, while the lady Wolves were the top seed at zones.
Morinville’s record against Barrhead is now 2-4, including a three-set loss to the Gryphons in the 24th annual Lions Western Canadian Challenge.
The 3A provincials start Thursday at Rocky Mountain House for the men and Beaverlodge for the women.
In the eight-team men’s draw, Morinville is seeded first and Barrhead is 10th as one of three wild cards.
In pool A, Morinville plays Cochrane, St. Martin de Porres of Calgary, H.J. Cody of Sylvan Lake, Edmonton Christian Lions, a wild card, and Cardston.
At last year’s provincials, Morinville lost the gold-medal match 20-25, 21-25 to Barrhead, a wild-card team in the tournament and 2016 silver medallist.
It was Morinville’s first setback of the season to Barrhead after winning eight matches in a row against its zone rivals.
The silver medal was Morinville’s first in 3A after winning the 1981 2A championship and the provincial appearance was also the team’s first since reaching the quarter-finals in 2015 as a tournament wild card.
The lady Wolves are making their first provincial appearance since going 2-3 in pool play in 2015.
In the red pool of the 12-team tournament, the lady Wolves play Cochrane, Edmonton Christian, Camrose, St. Joseph of Grande Prairie, last year’s gold medallist, and Crescent Heights of Calgary.
Visit www.asaa.ca for the men’s and women’s tournament results.
Skyhawks volleyball
The volleyball season ended Saturday at the 3A Edmonton zone provincial women’s qualifier for the St. Albert Skyhawks.The Edmonton Christian Lions defeated the Skyhawks in the semifinals and the Lions also won the final in their home gym for a berth at the Alberta Schools’ Athletic Association championship this weekend in Beaverlodge.
The Lions and Skyhawks were ranked first and second, respectively, in the eight-team tournament that was divided in two pools.
Scores for the Skyhawks at zones were unavailable at press time.
In the metro Edmonton division one league, the Lions (9-4) reached the semifinals and Skyhawks (4-8) were quarter-finalists.
Meanwhile, last week’s challenge match between the Skyhawks and Old Scona for the eighth seed in the 3A men’s zone tournament ended with the home team losing at the SkyDome.
In the metro Edmonton league, the Skyhawks (1-10) finished last in division two and Old Scona (7-5) was sixth in division three as the quarter-finalist.
