The 91原创 Christian Lightning junior girls were able to put a stop to the Walnut Grove Gators on Thursday.
In the final three sets of Thursday鈥檚 91原创 District championship game at 91原创 Events Centre, the Lightning would build a multi-point lead, but the Gators would come back every time, making 91原创 Christian fight for every point.
In the end, the LCS took home the District championship trophy after a short one-year absence, marking their fifth title in the past six years, 3-2.
鈥淭hey really had to fight for this one,鈥� said Lightning coach Laura Folkerts.
鈥淲alnut Grove brought their 鈥楢鈥� game. We just had to battle, we had to keep swinging.鈥�
The teams split the first two sets with LCS winning 25-19 before Walnut Grove took set two 25-21. The Lightning raced out to an early lead in the third set, 8-1 but the Gators didn鈥檛 panic, clawing their way back and prevailing 25-23.
The fourth set saw 91原创 Christian stay alive 25-22 and then jump out to a 5-0 lead in the decisive fifth set. To their credit, Walnut Grove rallied back to go ahead 13-12 before the Lightning regrouped to score the final three points for the 15-13 victory.
The Gators were ranked second for the playoffs after a 7-1 regular season, their lone loss being a 3-1 defeat to LCS a few weeks back.
鈥淭hey have worked on their serving and had some amazing serves,鈥� Folkerts said about their opponent. 鈥淭hey caught us in a few rotations of service receive that we struggled with.鈥�
Both LCS and Walnut Grove will now compete at the upcoming Fraser Valley championships. They will be joined by the 91原创 Fundamental Titans, who won 3-0 over the Mountain Eagles to finish third at the District championships.
While the junior girls final went the distance, the junior boys 91原创 District championship game was a 3-0 sweep for the top-ranked 91原创 Christian Lightning.
The Lightning (5-0) won 25-21, 25-19 and 25-15 over the No. 2 91原创 Fundamental Titans (4-1).
It was the third title in the past four years for LCS, which was runner-up in 2017.
LCS coach Eric Van Huizen said the handful of players who were on last year鈥檚 second-place squad didn鈥檛 mention coming close the year before during the season.
鈥淭hey didn鈥檛 talk about it much but they wanted to win the district championship,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e have a well-rounded group of kids with lots of talent. The goal was to win districts and see what happens after that.鈥�
Both 91原创 Christian and 91原创 Fundamental will now compete at the Fraser Valley championships.
