Oak Bay hopes and expects to face Dover Bay in the final as the senior boys host the first volleyball Island Championship in the new gym.
Last Monday (Nov. 9) the Oak Bay senior boys team won its eighth consecutive Lower Island championship with a 2-0 win over Reynolds.
This weekend, six AAA teams battle for the Island title Nov. 20 and 21, the home team, their rivals from the Nanaimo Dover Bay, and Victoria area schools Reynolds, Claremont, Belmont and Spectrum secondary schools.
“Dover Bay is our competition on the Island. We’ve beaten them once and they’ve beaten us twice (this season),” said coach Allan Carmichael.
Dover Bay is ranked No. 3 in the province and Oak Bay sits at No. 7.
“The other teams … Reynolds is not as strong as they have been in past years, if we play well we’ll beat them,” Carmichael said.
“We should, and expect to, face Dover Bay in the final.”
The top four finishers at Islands earn berths at provincials Dec. 2 to 5 at Langley Event Centre.
“I expect this year there will be more upsets because there’s a lot of parity in AAA (provincially),” Carmichael said. “There’s no clear No. 1 and No. 2 team this year so the door is open for us.”
The 2015 senior boys volleyball AAA Island Championships are Nov. 20 and 21 at Oak Bay High at the corner of Cadboro Bay and Bowker roads.
Oak Bay faces Belmont at 1 p.m. Friday and Claremont at 4 p.m. then returns to the court at noon Saturday. The gold-medal game at 5:30 p.m. Saturday.
cvanreeuwyk@oakbaynews.com