Settling for second wasn’t the Victoria Flyers’ plan, but they’ll take it.
The under-14 boys volleyball team returned from the 2011 Canadian Western Open Volleyball championships in Saskatoon earlier this month with silver medals.
The Flyers, comprised primarily of boys from Lansdowne middle school, entered the tournament as the seventh seed below the respective champions from the Yukon, Alberta, Manitoba, B.C. and Saskatchewan.
In the end it was only the B.C. champions Fraser Valley (Abbotsford) who could defeat the Flyers. The final was a repeat of the Flyers’ loss to Fraser Valley at the provincials just one week prior.
The Victoria squad cruised through its round robin opposition defeating the North Alberta Volleyball Club, Manitoba’s Selkirk Royals and Manitoba’s club 204.
On day two the Flyers faced the tourney’s No. 1 seed Winnipeg Gold.
“The team was pleased to finally face an opponent which played a similar style of volleyball, a hustling, never-give-up defensive style,” said coach Rick Wutzke.
The Flyers beat the Gold in two sets and then dispatched Brandon in the quarterfinals and the Calgary Inferno in the semifinals.
It was the second time in three years the team made it into the Canadian championships. Unfortunately, the height difference of Fraser Valley was too much for the Victoria team to overcome as Fraser Valley won in two sets.