Earl Marriott junior girls Mariners win provincial volleyball championships

The Earl Marriott Secondary junior girls volleyball team are provincial champions.

After 24 teams from around B.C. took to the courts at Pacific Academy and Salish Secondary Nov. 25 and 26, the junior Mariners capped their 47-1 season with a two-set win (25-20, 25-21) over Vancouver’s Crofton House to win the Provincial banner.

“Their extremely hard work earned them this championships. They deserve it. I’m so proud of them,” coach Robert Stevens said.

“This is a group of young ladies that were determined from Day 1 in September to work extremely hard and see if they could repeat as provincial champions. We never spoke of trying to win the championship again – we spoke of our potential as a team.”

The same EMS team won the Grade 9 Provincial Championship last year, and the same three Mariners players earned the same awards for the second year in a row — Mia Stevens (Tournament MVP), Sydney Schierbeck (All-Star) and Talia Partovi (All-Star), Stevens noted.

While his team are “fierce competitors,” they also really enjoy playing volleyball and having fun while competing.

“Every tournament they play, they make friends,” he said.

He’s not only proud of their success, but how they support each other – and other teams – during competition.

“It really has been a complete team effort to achieve our success.”

Stevens said girls volleyball at EMS appears to have a promising future, as the school’s Grade 8 girls team won its provincial volleyball championship Nov. 19 and the senior girls team is traveling to Lake Country in the Okanagan this week to compete in the AAA senior girls Provincial Championships, which will be held Dec. 1-3 at George Elliott Secondary.

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