The Riverside Rapids held off Coquitlam's Pinetree to win the senior girls zone volleyball championship.
Pinetree took the Port Coquitlam squad to five games in the zone final 25-12, 19-25, 25-21, 15-25, 15-13.
"The Coquitlam District final was an unbelievable match between two top-10 teams in the province. Pinetree is playing extraordinary volleyball right now and pushed us hard right to the very end," said Riverside coach Bryan Gee.
The Rapids Christine Anderson had an outstanding tournament, scoring the final three points in the fifth set.
Heritage Woods swept Terry Fox 25-22, 25-21, 25-23 to claim the bronze.
Those four teams will be joined by Port Moody, Gleneagle and Maple Ridge in advancing to the Fraser Valley championships in Langley.
"The girls are learning how to stay composed in difficult situations and how to stay positive and work through the challenging situations," said Gee. "This was a great test for us, however, things get harder now as the Fraser Valley is loaded with talent this year. It may be the strongest year I have ever seen. Our girls have trained hard and are ready to give their best this week"
On the boys' side, Centennial knocked off Charles Best 26-24, 25-19, 26-24 to secure first place.
"We had a couple of pretty tight matches," said Centennial coach Greg Russell of the contests against Charles Best and Maple Ridge.
He said a number of players playing club ball has been a key to the team's success.
"That's pretty important, if you can get three, four, five players playing club you're probably going to be one of the better teams in the province," said Russell. "We've been working at things pretty consistently so some of the non-club players have come a long way as well."
Maple Ridge outlasted Riverside 25-23, 18-25, 25-20, 32-30 in the bronze medal game. All four teams will advance to the Fraser Valley championships.
"The teams are going to be a lot better so they're going to have to play a lot more consistently," Russell said of the Valleys which start on Thursday.
"If we win our first match then we are playing the No. 2 seed Earl Marriott so that's not going to be easy."
