Sometimes settling for silver means more than taking second place, considering the competition.
A team of 12 players from Vancouver Island and the Central Coast, including five from Langford, recently earned a hard-fought silver medal at a Volleyball B.C. zone tournament. Eight under-15 girls teams from across the province competed July 18 and 19 at Harry Jerome Sports Centre in Burnaby.
The Zone 6 Island/Coast team beat Zone 5 Vancouver/Squamish in three sets in the semifinal (25-15, 11-25, 15-13), before losing the final to Zone 3 Fraser Valley, 25-17, 25-22.
It’s quite an accomplishment when you take into account that the teams on the mainland have a much larger pool of players to draw from and more access to quality practice time as a team, said Joanna May, proud mother of two Zone 6 players.
“They battled hard and played some incredible volleyball,” she said. “The girls showed a lot of heart and earned respect from players and coaches on the mainland.”
May’s daughters, Hannah, 14 and Gracie, 13 – an underage player selected as team captain – were among five players from Langford on the Zone 6 team, the others being Savannah Purdy, 15, Sydney Belton, 15, and Taylee Pomponio, 13, comprise the other players from Langford.
That group won back-to-back provincial titles in 2014 and 2015 as part of the Victoria Volleyball Association’s West Shore club team. Langford’s Miranda Cyr, 15, is an alternate.
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