The Morinville Wolves served up an historic victory at the 22nd annual Lions Western Canadian Challenge.
Saturday’s 26-28, 25-23, 15-12 triumph against the North Central zone rival Barrhead Gryphons at Morinville Community High School marked the first time the men’s volleyball team celebrated a WCC championship.
The Wolves lost their opening pool A round-robin match to Athabasca in two sets and also fell to the St. Joseph’s Celtics of Grande Prairie in three sets before finding their groove in the playoffs.
The 3A Wolves polished off two 4A teams – Paul Kane Blues in the quarter-finals and Ernest Manning Griffins of Calgary in the semifinals – en route to beating the defending 3A provincial champions for their first tournament title of the season.
Paul Kane and Ernest Manning are more than double the size of Morinville’s 420 student body.
The Wolves have four returning players and one starter back from last year’s lineup that reached the quarter-finals at the 3A provincials.
The roster includes six players from the 2015 St. Albert Physical Education Council Tier I junior high championship team that finished 42-3 (93 GW/14 GL) overall on the season.
The women’s final went three sets, as the St. Joseph’s Ceniahs of Grande Prairie knocked off the defending WCC champion St. Albert Skyhawks 20-25, 25-19, 15-10 at the SkyDome.
The Skyhawks finished 6-1 and had dropped only one set in the tournament until the final. Late in the third set the metro Edmonton division one team lost its setter to an injury and was also missing its starting middle.
Last year at the 3A provincials the Skyhawks swept the Ceniahs in the gold-medal match.
St. Albert Catholic High School and Morinville co-hosted the WCC 12-team women’s and 12-team men’s draws.
