Owls, Bears Top-ranked Going Into Provincial AAA Volleyball Tournament

The Kelowna Owls have earned yet another opportunity to claim the elusive gold medal at the B.C. School Sports AAA boys provincial championship tournament.

With a sweep of their two matches at the Okanagan Valley tournament on the weekend in Kamloops, the Owls — provincial silver medalists the past three years — will go into the 16-team BCSS event in Langley as the No. 1 seed.

The Owls downed Central Okanagan-rival Mt. Boucherie Bears 3-1 (25-20, 25-20, 18-25, 25-21) in the Valley’s title match after sweeping the NorKam Saints 3-0 in semifinal play. It's their sixth straight Valley pennant win.

“They were two great matches by the team,” said head coach Mike Sodaro, after the Owls had defeated the Bears for a second straight time since temporarily losing the No. 1 ranking to Boucherie earlier this month. “Valley all-stars Spencer Doody and Ryan Samuelson came through with strong performances to lead us, while Matt Bernacki, along with some amazing defence and leadership in the back row, gave us the opportunity to run a smooth attack.”

Sodaro was also impressed with the performance of Aidan Van Dam, who provided “great blocking and strong middle attacks throughout the two matches.

“Josh Liegman did a tremendous job on the offside — blocking and hitting, while his passing was a key for us against Boucherie,” noted Sodaro. “Matt Cespedes was once again our go-to power hitter. He’s playing outstanding offensively and leading the Owls in kills, while improving every day. We look to Matt to lead us at the provincials.

The Owls will go into the first day (Dec. 2) at the Langley Events Centre in a power pool with No. 2 Dover Bay Dolphins of Nanaimo, No. 3 Mt. Boucherie and No. 4 Moscrop Panthers of Burnaby.

Meanwhile, Mt. Boucherie will be out to improve on their bronze-medal performance at provincials the past two years.

They have a solid core of six returnees from last season’s team, including Grade 12 leftside hitters Brodie Kern and Jeremy Bednar, both Team BC players. Grade 11 setter Bobby Blaskovits, another provincial-team member, has been a starter since Grade 10.

Three other Grade 12s, Sasha Josipovic, Sean Haylow and Kyle Flavin – round out the returning group.

“We have an opportunity to do something special,” said head coach, Joel Kern, earlier this month in an interview with Bob Carter. “We will be focused on execution as we head toward the provincial championships.”