The Royal Bay Ravens will have home court advantage for the Triple-A Boys Vancouver Island Volleyball Championship, and they’ll need it if they’re going to knock off red-hot Claremont and Oak Bay for the right to go to provincials.
The Ravens finished third at the recent Lower Island championship, behind champion Claremont and runner-up Oak Bay and the Spartans and Bays are ranked third and fourth, respectively, in the final provincial rankings before this weekend’s regional championships.
Earl Marriott and Kelowna Secondary hold down the top two positions in the B.C. rankings.
Action at Royal Bay this weekend begins today at noon, with the championship match scheduled for Saturday afternoon. Claremont is in Pool B with Nanaimo District, Reynolds and Ballenas, while Oak Bay and Royal Bay are joined in Pool B by Dover Bay and Mount Douglas.
The Double-A boys Island championship also begins today at noon with St. Michaels University hosting the eight-team event.
SMUS, the No. 2 seed from the South, is joined in Pool A by Highland, Carihi and Lambrick Park. Pool B is led by South top seed Pacific Christian School, along with Esquimalt, Mark Isfeld and Timberline.
The gold-medal match is slated for 4:45 p.m. on Saturday, with the top two teams advancing to provincials.
On the senior girls’ side, Island championship tournaments are being played this weekend at Duncan Christian (Single-A), Brentwood College (Double-A), Carihi (Triple-A) and Belmont (Quad-A).
At Belmont, top-seeded Claremont gets things going today with a 1 p.m. game against Reynolds. Other teams at the tournament include Oak Bay, Nanaimo District, Dover Bay, Mount Douglas, Royal Bay and the host Bulldogs.
The gold-medal game goes at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday. The top three teams advance to the B.C. championship in Langley.
