Cross Country
SMUS Cross Country team runners recorded a pair of impressive third-place finishes to highlight Race 3 of the Lower Island League series held last Thursday under beautiful fall conditions at Beaver Lake.
In the 5K Senior Girls event, Amelie Fleck of SMUS had the race of her life and finished third overall, while teammate Yashita Kaku was not far behind in eighth.
In the 5K Senior Boys event, Blue Jag runner Owen Sandquist-Sherman had a stellar race to finish in third place overall as well, just seconds off the lead runner. SMUS teammate Finlay Hlannon also cracked the top 15 with his best race of the season thus far.
In the 4K Junior Boys race, Grade 9 standout Isaac Ren was the top SMUS runner, finishing in 16th place overall.
Next up for the team is a race at Juan de Fuca (Westshore), which will take place this Wednesday, October 16, beginning at 3:45 pm.
Field Hockey
The Senior Girls Field Hockey team had a busy week, highlighted by participation in the annual Bridgman Cup at UVic, the longest-running field hockey tournament in North America, over the Thanksgiving weekend.
Bridgman Cup pool games on Friday included a narrow 1-0 SMUS loss to Handsworth of North Vancouver, the top team in the province and No. 1 seed in the entire tournament. The Blue Jags followed that up with a 3-0 win over Port Moody’s Heritage Woods, powered by a hat trick from Kendyll Adams.
“The Handsworth game saw the best performance of the season to date so far, with excellent defence marshalled by Caitlyn Mullen, great competing in the middle from Avery Geddes, Mackenna Brown and Anna Beaudry, while goalkeeper Lina Cratzius expertly saved one penalty stroke and had another penalty stroke hit her best friend, the post, and stay out,” said Coach David Kerr.
On Saturday, SMUS was without influential playmaker Brown as well as three other regular starters. Despite competing hard, the Blue Jags lost 3-0 to Collingwood in the quarterfinals and then fell 4-2 to Seycove, last year’s AA provincial champions. In the latter game, two goals by Adams erased a 2-0 deficit, but a talented Seycove team scored a pair of late goals to pull away.
The Blue Jags were exhausted by Sunday morning and fell 1-0 to Sutherland to place eighth in the 12-team event.
“Overall an eighth-place finish was credible for this tournament, but the competition at this level showed the girls the importance of taking their scoring chances and how all the matches are challenging,” Kerr said. “The AA provincial tournament [at UVic] will be close and exciting in three weeks time.”
In league play last Wednesday, the Blue Jags comfortably beat a weakened Mount Douglas team 5-0, led by a pair of goals from Adams and singles from Beaudry, Carlotta D'Amico and Manon Denux. Cratzius recorded the shutout.
Next up for the team will be a league game against Glenlyon-Norfolk School on Wednesday, October 16 at 4 pm at UVic and then a weekend off from tournaments – the first in four weeks.
Junior Girls A Volleyball
After a 10-day break that overlapped with Grade 10 outtrips, the SMUS Junior Girls A Volleyball team had a busy week of league and tournament play.
On Monday, October 7, the Blue Jags fell in straight sets to both Claremont and Royal Bay at Lambrick Park but managed to take a set against their Lambrick Park hosts in the final match. In the next series of Lower Island league games last Wednesday at Spectrum, SMUS blanked the host team 2-0, lost two sets to Parkland, and took one set against Edward Milne by a score of 25-8.
The Blue Jags headed back to Spectrum on Friday for the Spikes and Aces tournament, where they finished second in their pool with victories over Edward Milne and Chemainus and a hard-fought, three-set loss to Carihi.
That qualified the Blue Jags for the Tier 1 playoffs on Saturday. In their first match of the day, a strong Belmont side proved challenging, resulting in a straight-set loss. Down a handful of players by the afternoon, SMUS went on to lose its remaining two matches against Cedar and Carihi, resulting in an eighth-place finish in the 16-team event.
The Blue Jags will host Belmont, Stelly’s, and Pacific Christian in league play on Wednesday, October 16, at 4 pm.
Junior Girls Development Volleyball
The SMUS Junior Girls Development Volleyball team split its Lower Island league matches this past week at home, beating Oak Bay in straight sets and then falling to Parkland in a hard-fought contest.
“Special mention to Linn Kuepper who had 12 serves in a row during the win versus Oak Bay,” said Coach Samantha Butler. “Also, a shout out to all of the setters, who are working so hard to set our team up for success – Nadia Sadowska, Ava Crawford, Aria Mavrikos and Isla Kerr.”
Senior Girls Volleyball
The SMUS Senior Girls Volleyball team won four of six sets in Lower Island league action in front of a large and loud crowd at Stelly's last Tuesday evening.
The Blue Jags fell 17-25, 17-25 to the host Stingers but beat Mount Douglas 25-8, 25-16 and St. Andrew's 25-9, 25-10.
SMUS will host league games at 6 pm in the Double Gym on Tuesday, October 16, with Claremont, Royal Bay and Belmont visiting. This is the final night of Lower Island league play. The league final – Vic Lindal Cup/Veterans Cup – will be contested next Tuesday, October 22, at a site still to be determined.
The Blue Jags will travel to Crofton House this week for the Western Canadian Independent Schools Volleyball Championships. The annual event, which has been held for more than 50 years, starts Thursday and will include St. John’s-Ravenscourt from Winnipeg, Notre Dame from Wilcox, Saskatchewan., and both Strathcona-Tweedsmuir and Rundle from Calgary, along with other BC teams Crofton House, York House and Stratford Hall. It will feature a full round-robin followed by playoff and medal matches on Saturday.
SMUS will host the Western Canada tournament in 2026.
Senior Boys Volleyball
The SMUS Senior Boys swept all four sets in Lower Island volleyball league action last Wednesday night at École Victor-Brodeur, beating both St. Andrew’s and the host Brodeur squad by scores of 25-2, 25-8, 25-5 and 25-16.
The Blue Jags are back in league action this Wednesday, October 16, at Pacific Christian with games against the host school and Stelly’s starting at 6 pm.
Junior Boys Volleyball
The Junior Boys Volleyball team won four of 12 sets in Lower Island league play last week.
In action January 8 at Mount Douglas, the Junior Jags lost 2-0 to Vic High (14-25, 24-26) and then split with both Mount Douglas (21-25, 25-9) and PCS (23-25, 25-22). Against Vic High, Kevin Jiang contributed some good digs to keep the play alive. In the second-set win over PCS, a big service run by Adam Zilber was the difference maker.
League play continued last Thursday at Claremont, where SMUS split against Reynolds (25-27, 25-14) and Spectrum (14-25, 26-24) but was swept by league No. 1 and favourite Claremont (7-25, 11-25). Some big blocks by middle William Low provided the Blue Jags with a much-needed energy boost in the win over Spectrum.
“Claremont was very dominant. They are league favourites and dominated both sets,” said SMUS Coach Jordan Tessarolo. “Their very strong serving made it difficult for us to get into any sort of rhythm.”
“Overall, we looked much more comfortable on the floor and positioning,” Tessarolo added. “We host this week, which is our second-last week of league games. It is very tight in the middle of the standings, so we are still fighting for a playoff spot.”
The Junior Jags will host Oak Bay, Esquimalt and Royal Bay on Thursday, October 17 at 4 pm.
Junior Boys Soccer
The Junior Boys Soccer team split its two Lower Island league games last week. The first was against Stelly’s, a contest in which SMUS dominated the field, resulting in a 4-0 decision.
On Wednesday, the Blue Jags took on Belmont, which has been a powerhouse since the beginning of the season. SMUS started the game strong, fighting hard for the ball at every opportunity. Unfortunately for the Jags, Belmont managed to score twice in the first half. In the second half, SMUS had many scoring opportunities of its own but could only manage to find the back of the net once and the game ended in a 2-1 loss.
The Junior Jags play host to Claremont at SMUS this Wednesday, October 16 at 3:45 pm.
Senior Boys Soccer
The SMUS Senior Boys Soccer team fell 6-1 to visiting Royal Bay in Lower Island league action last Thursday afternoon. Will Zielinski scored the Blue Jags’ lone goal in the second half.
The visiting Ravens featured a strong forward line and, combined with capable midfielders, Royal Bay capitalized on a series of transitional opportunities to earn the win. Wil Woods and Davis Hardy created some solid opportunities and Alex Zabaneh applied persistent pressure from the right wing for the Blue Jags in the second half.
The Blue Jags will host Stelly’s in a 3:45 pm matchup this Thursday, October 17.
