Delta’s Seaquam Seahawks senior girls volleyball team captured its first Peace Arch News Classic title Saturday evening at Semiahmoo Secondary, after a win over the defending champion Surrey Christian Falcons.
Prior to the event, tournament co-ordinator Gord Houchen, a teacher at Semi and coach at Clayton Heights, said it’s often said of the PAN tourney that “whoever wins the PAN Classic, wins provincials,” and that could very well be the case again this year, as the Seahawks are the province’s No. 1-ranked AAA team.
The two-day tournament, now in its 20th running, was staged Friday and Saturday at all three South Surrey public high schools – Elgin Park, Earl Marriott and Semiahmoo, with Saturday’s championship-round games hosted at Semi.
Rounding out the top-three finishers were the Earl Marriott Mariners, who were ranked fifth in AAAA provincial rankings heading into the PAN Classic. Houchen’s Clayton Heights squad, third-best in B.C. AAA rankings, placed fourth, losing to EMS in the bronze-medal game.
Other Peninsula squads in the mix were the Elgin Park Orcas, who placed tied for seventh, Elgin Park’s junior girls team, which finished 19th out of 24 teams, and Semiahmoo, which finished tied for 21st with a handful of squads (games to determine a team’s exact placing were not played beyond the top six positions).
Surrey Christian’s Rachel Windhorst was named tournament MVP, while all-star nods went to Breanna Evoy (Clayton Heights), Tess Frey (Clayton Heights), Tessa Davis (Earl Marriott), Kira Tome (Seaquam), Carley Flemmer (Seaquam) and Elise Dejaeger (Surrey Christian).