The junior boys volleyball team at Charles Hays Secondary School (CHSS) made the trip to Kelowna this past week to take part in the provincial championship.
The Northwest Zone champs didn’t have as much success as they hoped, finishing 23rd out of 24 teams but it did come away with a win.
The tournament began with three group play matches. The Rainmakers won its first set against Burnaby Central 28-26, but lost the best-of-three with 22-25 and 12-15 sets.
The team also lost to Sands Secondary and Abbotsford Christian in two sets each. The three losses in group play meant the highest the boys could finish was 17th, so they played the bottom eight teams to confirm provincial rankings.
The next day, the boys played Mount Baker but fell 2-0 in sets of 14-25 and 15-25. That pitted them against Penticton, who also beat them 2-0 in sets of 13-25 and 18-25.
Those two losses put the Rainmakers in the last-place game against Constable Neil Bruce (CNB). In the first set, the boys led 20-14 but CNB rallied to make things difficult. In the end CHSS pulled out the win 28-26.
The second set was an exciting back-and-forth affair that CNB won 31-29. But the Rainmakers bounced back with a strong 15-11 victory in the final set to win the match 2-1 and leave provincials on a high note.