The BC AA Senior Girls Volleyball Championship will be contested at Brentwood College in late November and the SMUS Blue Jags are working diligently toward being there for the 16-team battle.
“Getting to the provincials is a great goal for this group,” says SMUS Head Coach Melanie Bendfeld, who returns six players, including five Grade 12s, from her 2023 squad.
At least two Vancouver Island teams – and possibly three depending on the rankings – will make the provincial tournament as Brentwood is guaranteed a host berth. Last year, the Blue Jags competed at the AAA level and finished fifth on the Island, missing out on the provincial tournament. Bendfeld believes her team has a good shot at a AA berth this season.
“I’m excited, because this is an experienced group of returning players,” she says.
Key among those returnees are a pair of third-year SMUS Senior team members – Grade 12s Charlie Anderson (left side) and Lucia Schmidt del Rio (right side). The Blue Jags will look to those two to set the tone while a trio of front-row players – Nicola Bevington (Grade 11), Isabelle LeRoy (Grade 12) and Kate Fraser (Grade 12) – will provide power and blocking ability. The team will also rely on experienced Grade 12 setter Yanyu Zhang.
“We’ll probably have quite a dynamic offence this season,” Bendfeld says. “It all depends on our passing.”
Bendfeld expects her Blue Jags to be among the top two AA teams in the city, with Lambrick Park and Pacific Christian thought to be their biggest local rivals. Brentwood College, currently ranked 10th among BC AA teams, is the only Island squad in the provincial Top 10.
“We haven’t been in AA for awhile so it’s hard to know now where we would rank,” Bendfeld says.
So far, the Blue Jags have been stacking up well in early-season competition. SMUS finished an impressive sixth overall in the 16-team Spectrum Spikes and Aces Tournament last weekend, which Bendfeld describes as “an excellent result for the team’s first weekend together.” In league play to date, the Blue Jags have split six matches over two nights of Pool A play against teams at various levels.
SMUS will be looking to fine-tune its game over a series of high-level tournaments during the next two months. The biggest of those will be the Western Canadian Independent Schools Championships October 16-19 at Crofton House. That event 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. York House is currently the fourth-ranked AA team in BC.
That tournament will be a big highlight of the season for us,” Bendfeld says.
Prior to that event, the Blue Jags will take part in the Vancouver Island University tournament October 4 and 5, which will include a number of Lower Mainland teams. They will also compete in a Belmont tournament October 25 and 26. Their league schedule includes five play nights, with three matches on each night. SMUS will host league play on October 15, at 6 pm in the Double Gym, with visiting teams including Belmont, Royal Bay and Claremont.
The Island AA Championship will be decided November 15 and 16 at Highland Secondary in Comox, with either two or three teams advancing to the provincial championship tournament November 28 to 30 at Brentwood.
Under Bendfeld, SMUS captured the Island AA title in 2021 and advanced to the provincial tournament, where the Blue Jags finished 12th. She is assisted on the bench this season by Allison Higinbotham and Chantelle Dobie.
