It wasn’t necessarily pretty, but the Belmont Bulldogs confirmed their placement for the upcoming Island AAA senior boys volleyball championships at Oak Bay High.
Going 1-2 in Monday’s playoff South Island playoff matches at Belmont left the host Bulldogs seeded as No. 4 among south teams playing in the upcoming tournament, set for Nov. 20 and 21.
The Bulldogs began the seeding day by knocking off Mount Douglas in two straight sets (25-8, 25-17), thus clinching a berth into the six-team Island tournament. Belmont then ran up against Oak Bay, a top-10 ranked team in the province among AAA squads. The Barbers won that match 25-11, 25-14 and ultimately defeated Reynolds 25-19, 25-20 to take the first seed for the south.
Belmont went on to drop the third/fourth place match to Claremont, 25-21, 25-18. The result meant little to the draw for the Islands, as both teams are in a pool with Oak Bay.
The other side of the draw sees Nanaimo’s Dover Bay joined by Reynolds and Spectrum.
The seeding tournament for the AAAA senior girls’ Islands tournament finished up Tuesday night at Belmont, after the Gazette’s holiday press deadline). Belmont, which finished third in the city league playoffs’ A pool, hosts the Island AAAA championships Nov. 20 and 21.
Ravens junior boys
second in South Islands
Oak Bay proved the nemesis of another West Shore team last week, as the junior boys downed the Ravens in the final of the eight-team South Island tournament at Royal Bay.
The host team won its pool with a 2-1 match record, its wins coming against Esquimalt and Pacific Christian, and the loss coming to Oak Bay.
Those results created an all-West Shore playoff matchup, which the Ravens won 25-17, 25-23 over the Belmont Bulldogs. In the semifinals, Royal Bay dispatched Claremont, who ultimately lost to Pacific Christian for third place.
Claremont hosts the Island championships Nov. 20 and 21.
editor@goldstream
gazette.com