Steveston-London Sharks senior boys volleyball team capped its best season in school history with a fourth place finish at the Provincial AAA Championships in Kelowna.
The Sharks finished exactly where they were ranked much of the season, after falling 3-0 (30-28, 25-21, 25-22) to Kelowna's Mt Boucherie on Saturday afternoon. The two schools had met three weeks earlier at the Thompson Rivers University Tournament in Kamloops where Steveston-London came away victorious.
"They have improved a lot over the last couple of weeks," said Sharks coach Edmond Mah. "They also had a 6-foot-8 guy who was a tough match-up for us."
The Sharks opened the tournament on Wednesday by going 1-2 in power pool play which determined the final seedings heading into the playoff round. They opened with a 2-0 (22-25, 16-25) loss to Earl Marriott, then got past Kelowna 2-1 (25-15, 20-25, 19-17) before falling 2-0 (22-25, 20-25) to Mt Boucherie.
The Lower Mainland zone champions then moved onto the round of 16 where they made short work of David Thompson (25-22, 25-16, 25-13). A 3-1 (21-25, 25-17, 25-14, 25-17) quarter-final win over Dover Bay set the stage the fifth meeting of the season with Earl Marriott.
The Sharks hung tough with the South Surrey school but it was still the same result as the four previous encounters with the Mariners prevailing 3-0 (25-22, 25-21, 25-21). Marriott went on to defeat Kelowna in three games to capture the provincial title.
"We played very well again and some of the games were really close," said Ma. "The difference was their size. They have one guy who is 6-foot-6 and even their setter is 6-foot-7. We just have a real hard time matching up with that."
The Sharks still came away with plenty of hardware led by Grade 12 twin standouts Ethan and Gabriel Freund being named first team all-stars. Mitchell Jesson was an honourable mention.
"Mitchell really stepped up his game," added Ma. "He is normally a libero but had to play left side and played very well for us."
The Sharks roster also includes: Nicholas Chan, Adrian Cheng, Max Kwan, Sam Lee, Xing Tian Li, Eric Mo, Jack Murakami, Zachery Pang, Isaac Sy, Lenny Tabakman and Marcus Yeung.
