A 12th-place finish didn't diminish the experience the Princess Margaret Mustangs senior girls volleyball squad had at provincials in Cowichan Valley.
Coach Tim Haberstock said they had a fantastic provincial championship after losing to St. Pats 25-18 and 25-23 to take 12th.
"Our round robin pool had two teams, Elphinstone (25-17, 15-25 and 11-15) and Langley Fundamental (21-25 and 23-25), that I thought we could have beat but we didn’t play consistently enough to get it done," said Haberstock. "This set us up with a playoff game against the eventual finalists from Ladysmith."
Against Ladysmith, the Mustangs lost the first set 25-15, then lost a closer match 25-21 and 25-17.
"We knew that it would be a big upset to knock them off, but the pressure was clearly on them," he said. "We played them point for point and I thought even out hit them, but too many unforced errors eventually caught up to us. To win at provincials you can’t beat yourself. You need to put pressure on the opponents forcing them to make mistakes, which we did very well against MEI in our win." Against the hosts, Brentwood Haberstock felt his team outplayed them in every part, but missed eight serves to hand them wins of 25-17 and 25-22.
In the final match against St. Pats, Haberstock chose to start his Grade 11 players, who he said played well. The Grade 12's played the final set.
"They played with all the heart and effort they had left in them," he said. "Although they came up two points short, they had some incredible rallies, made some great plays and then shed some tears that together they will remember as a great way to finish a very successful high school volleyball career."