The Argyle Pipers senior girls volleyball team has gone from top-ranked to unranked all in one short summer.
It's not much of a surprise, really. Last year the Pipers began the season as the No. 1-ranked AAAA team in B.C. and they held that spot through the entire season, winning the North Shore, Lower Mainland and provincial titles along the way. It was a magical run that culminated in the school's first ever B.C. championship in volleyball.
What helped make the group so special was that the entire starting lineup was made up of Grade 12 players. Really, really talented Grade 12 players. Three of them are now playing in the cutthroat CIS West university league, with Anna Price and Sarah Haysom at the University of British Columbia and Kendra Finch at Thompson Rivers University. Two other starters, Megan Koven and Keeley Bell, are set to suit up for Capilano University this fall.
"It was a special team," said head coach Kathy Finch. But the coach wasn't ready to admit that it might be a while before Argyle ever assembles so much talent on one team. "I've got my team's back right now," she said with a laugh.
The starters from last year are all gone but there is a link to the championship group with four returning players who are all in Grade 12 now. Hayley Mann, Sierra Terjesen, Rachel Kordysz, and Megan Finch - Kendra's younger sister - are all charged with carrying the championship torch. "They're showing great leadership," said Kathy
Finch, Kendra and Megan's mother. "I think the experience from last year is really setting the tone for the team."
The Pipers weren't included in the preseason provincial top-10 rankings but they've already shown that they won't be pushovers. In their first league game on Tuesday they swept a tough West Vancouver team 3-0. This weekend they're having a little team reunion at the Best of the West tournament hosted by Trinity Western University. Kendra Finch will be there with her TRU team and Haysom and Price will be on site too for a university tournament held in conjunction with the high school event. The event holds a bit of a special place for last year's group.
"That's the tournament that we won last year so we're going to go see if we can defend our championship," said Finch.
The tough tests will continue this week when the Pipers take on the Handsworth Royals in a league game Thursday night. The matchup is part of a doubleheader hosted by Handsworth with Elphinstone meeting West Vancouver to kick off the evening at 6:30 p.m. followed by Handsworth and Argyle battling afterward starting at approximately 8 p.m. Handsworth was No. 5 in the preseason rankings, having returned many of the top players from a team that finished fourth in last season's AAAA provincials.
"They're a strong team and they're predominantly Grade 12s," Finch said of the Royals. "They're looking strong."
As for the Pipers, they're looking forward to blazing a new trail this season.
"It's a brand new team," said Finch. "We're doing well.... The (returning players) are providing great leadership. I've got some strong Grade 11s coming in but we're obviously not the same team we were last year. We have a lot of heart."
