The Lake Cowichan Lakers senior girls volleyball team is bound for the 'A' provincial championships after a third-place finish at the Islands Nov. 12-13 behind winner Nanaimo Christian School and runner-up Brookes Westshore.
Dixie Bergman was Lake Cowichan's first team all-star and Riley Warren was the team's second-team all-star.
The Lakers went 2-1 in pool play, beating Duncan Christian School (25-19, 25-11) and Port Hardy (25-17, 27-25) but losing to Brookes Westshore to end up in second place in the pool.
From there they beat Chemainus in the quarterfinal (25-15, 25-13) but fell to Nanaimo Christian in the best-of-five semi-finals (25-7, 25-8, 25-11). That sent them to the bronze medal game against Cedar.
It took Lake Cowichan four sets but they won that best-of five series (25-13, 25-23, 16-25, 25-18) to earn their ticket to the provincials.
DCS placed fifth overall and Chemainus was sixth.
Merika Henry and Kailey Nagtegaal were first- and second-team all-stars respectively for DCS while Olicia Laidlaw and Ruby Dumez earned the same accolades for Chemainus.
The Lakers had secured their position in the senior girls 'A' Island Volleyball Championships on Nov. 6 after placing fourth in the nine-team North Island finals hosted by Duncan Christian School.
The Lakers had met Cedar in the bronze medal game but lost in straight sets, 25-22, 25-20.
The North Island finals included five Cowichan schools: Lake Cowichan, the host DCS, Chemainus, Queen Margaret's, and St. John's Academy.
The Lakers placed second in Pool B with wins over Chemainus (25-12, 21-25, 15-1) and St. John's Academy (25-21, 25-22) and a loss to DCS (8-25, 18-25).
Their pool play record put the team through to the quarter finals, where the Lakers met Port Hardy, pulling off a three-set win (25-11, 17-25, 15-8) to advance to the semi-finals against Nanaimo Christian School. A straight-sets loss to eventual champions, Nanaimo (25-15, 25-11) sent them to the bronze medal game.
DCS won Pool B, going undefeated, beating the Lakers, Chemainus (25-13, 25-19), and St. John's Academy (23-25, 25-26, 15-6). Chemainus was third in Pool B with their only win of pool play coming against St. John's, who lost all three of their matches.
Meanwhile, QMS placed fourth of five teams in Pool B with a win over Ucluelet and loses to Nanaimo Christian School, Cedar, and Port Hardy.
In the quarterfinals, Chemainus and Cedar battled it out to see who would meet DCS in the semi-finals and Cedar came out on top with a 25-22, 25-9 straight-set victory. Chemainus went on to play for fifth and sixth place.
Nanaimo and DCS ended up playing for gold with Nanaimo winning 25-5, 25-18.
Sara Monahan and Naomi Gary were named all-stars for DCS while Callie Hartshorn and Riley Warren were named all-stars for Lake Cowichan. Cheyenne Silvey and Rui Wang were all-stars for Chemainus and QMS respectively and Olivia Fawcus was named for St. John's Academy.
The 1 'A' senior girls Provincial Volleyball Championships run Nov. 28-20 at Nanaimo Christian and Aspengrove schools.