The way Sydnee Witso was pounding the ball into the hardcourt, the Duchess Park Condors might have thought she'd borrowed Thor's hammer to get the job done.
But that was the meat of Witso's hand tenderizing leather at the net and it made a huge difference for the Prince George Polars.
They overcame an opening-set 25-23 loss to the Condors and won the next two 26-24, 15-13 to claim gold in the Duchess Park senior girls volleyball tournament Saturday at Duchess Park gym.
Sydnee Witso of the Polars was on her game from the start, but she downright deadly in the late stages of the second and third sets. In the deciding set the Condors had crept back from a 13-9 deficit behind the serving of Macyn Unger, a provincial under-16 team member, and the game was tied 13-13 when Witso spiked the ball down and the match ended on the following point with a Condor net touch.
"Our whole team just really wanted to win and we were all working together just doing what we love," said Witso, the tournament MVP. "When we're playing really well it's when we're cheering and smiling and having fun. Our passing worked really well and that allowed us to execute and win the points.
"I really wanted to win and the fire inside of me was, 'you just have to hit this ball down and win the point for your team.' It was a super-tight game and it feels good ending it off with a win."
Great defence all weekend delivered the Polars to the title match and they were digging it again in the final, keeping balls alive that looked like sure-points for Duchess Park.
"The one thing I really noticed was the defensive side of the game, balls were being dug up and then we did something to earn the side-out a number of times after that and that really picked up our energy level," said Polars head coach Allan Tong. "All three sets went down to the wire, you can't ask for a more competitive game."
Witso, tournament all-star Haley Johnson, Nina Gajic, Sophie O'Rourke and Caley Leslie gave PGSS setter Emily Pinko plenty of options directing the ball at the net which kept the Condor defenders guessing.
Duchess Park was without six-foot-three middle blocker/offside hitter Jasmine Schlick, who rolled her ankle the previous weekend in Kelowna. Haley Johnson and Karynn Hampe, who also played for the provincial U-16 team, took it upon themselves to make up for the loss of Schlick and their aggressive play at net earned them tournament all-star honours.
"They had some really nice hits that we just couldn't get to and they just played really well," said Hampe. "We've only played them once before and I just think as we play them more we'll get used to the other players."
The teams had met just once before, in the season-opening Kodiak Classic, a match won by the Condors in two sets. Heading into the weekend the Condors were ranked fifth in the province while the Polars were No. 8 in the rankings, led by top-ranked Little Flower Academy of Vancouver and the second-ranked Dawson Creek Penguins.
"We hadn't seen (the Polars) in six weeks and it's good to play them again because they'll be zone rivals for sure," said Condors head coach J.P. Martin. "We still played real well without Jasmine and had every chance to win that in the second set. Defensively, they were fantastic, we just kept pounding away and they kept playing great defence. We just made a few more errors at the wrong time than they did."
The D.P. Todd Trojans beat the College Heights Cougars for bronze, winning 22-25, 25-17, 18-16.
Other all-star award winners at Duchess Park were: Pinko, PGSS; Unger, Duchess Park; Morgan Johnson, College Heights; and Dailyn Long, D.P. Todd.
The Polars will host the North Central zone triple-A girls championship, Nov. 7-9 at PGSS gym. Just one provincial berth is up for grabs at that tournament. But with three North Central teams ranked in the top-10 in B.C. there will likely be a wild-card berth available for a second team to punch its ticket to the triple-A provincials, Nov. 28-30 in Langley.
The Condors will play the Trojans in the city girls championship this Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the College of New Caledonia, followed by the College Heights-Duchess Park boys final at 7:30 p.m.
