The Peacock Toilers might have won their third-straight Moose Jaw high school girls volleyball championship on Tuesday night, but that was just the start of the important games ahead.
Now it’s on to regional playdowns as girls teams all over the province continue the quest for their respective provincial championships.
The Toilers -- the defending 4A girls champions -- will find themselves with a much harder road this time around. With enrolment increasing at Peacock Collegiate, the Toilers are now in the 5A division and will do battle with the largest schools in the province.
Fortunately for the local squad, they’ll be able to take their run at qualifying for provincials at home as one of two regional hosts.
The six-team provincial qualifier kicks off at 10 a.m. at Peacock, with the Toilers in Pool A with Balgonie Greenall and Estevan. Peacock faces Estevan at 10 a.m. and Balgonie at 11:30 a.m., while the other pool will feature Weyburn, Swift Current and Yorkton Regional.
The top team from the round robin will receive a bye to the semifinal at 4 p.m., with the first round featuring the second and third-place teams playing at 2:30 p.m.
The regional final takes place at 5:30 p.m.
With Balgonie as provincial hosts during the Nov. 18 weekend, they automatically advance, meaning three of the six teams from the Peacock regional will move on to provincials.
The Cornerstone Christian School Falcons have already begun their provincial run, having put together a second-place showing in the 2A girls conference playdown in Pontiex during the Nov. 5 weekend.
Cornerstone went unbeaten in the round robin and took a 2-1 (25-22, 23-25, 17-15) win over Gravelbourg in the semifinal to book their spot in regionals. Leader defeated Cornerstone 2-0 (25-23, 25-11) to earn the top seed.
The Falcons will also host their regional tournament all day Saturday at Cornerstone. They begin their round robin against Outlook LCBI at 10 a.m. before facing Langham at 12 p.m. Davidson, Leader and Saskatoon Christian make up the other round robin pool.
The top two teams from each pool advance to the playoffs, with the semifinals at 3 p.m. The winners there will advance to 2A provincials in Gull Lake on Nov. 18, with the regional final played for seeding at 6 p.m. at Cornerstone.
Both the city championship runner-up Central Cyclones and semifinalist Vanier Spirits will be in action in the 4A girls regional in Lumsden.
Central is in a pool with Lumsden and Yorkton Sacred Heart, while Vanier will take on Melville. Notre Dame and Regina Scott in their round robin.
The top two from each pool advance to the playoff round, with the semifinal winners earning two of the three provincial berths. The semifinal losers will playoff for the third provincial spot, with that tournament taking place in Nipawin on the Nov. 18 weekend.
Most of the high school boys playoffs follow the girls by a week, and as a result will see conference playdowns and the 5A boy regional taking place this weekend.
Both Cornerstone and the Riverview Royals will take part in conference playdowns in Pontiex, joining the tournament hosts and Gravelbourg. The top two teams from the round robin will advance to regionals.
The Peacock Toilers will be in action at the 5A boys regional in Weyburn all day Saturday and will face Estevan and Yorkton Regional in Pool B. Swift Current, Weyburn and Balgonie are in Pool A.
The tournament format is the same as the girls 5A regional -- Swift Current is the provincial host, meaning three teams advance. The top team from each preliminary pool receives a bye to the semifinal, with both finalists joined by the winner of the semifinal losers at provincials.
Be sure to keep an eye on www.shsaa.ca for all the up-to-date results from the weekend.
