The opening week of athletics in the Senior School started off with fall sport field hockey, volleyball and soccer. The Senior Girls Field Hockey team came out the gate with a third-place finish at the Annual Friendship Cup tournament, while the Senior Boys Volleyball team went 2-4 in their season-opening tournament at Camosun. Senior Girls Volleyball and Senior Boys soccer have their first games later this week.
Senior Girls Field Hockey
After tryouts and a couple of practices last week, the SMUS Tier 1 Field Hockey team started its season with a third-place finish in the Competitive Division at the Friendship Cup tournament on Friday and Saturday in Duncan.
The Blue Jags recorded a pair of convincing wins on Friday, beating both Quamichan and Alberni District Secondary School by 4-0 margins. Mackenna Brown scored twice against Quamichan while Anika Keirn and Farah Sinclair provided single goals.
Brown and Sinclair also scored for SMUS in the win over Alberni. Grade 9 Olive Winters and Julia Nemitz, a Grade 11 newcomer from Germany, had the Blue Jags’ other goals. Ailo Streitel and Emma Knoblochova shared the goalkeeping to record the shutouts for SMUS.
On Saturday, missing almost all the team’s Grade 11s due to school out-trips, the Blue Jags brought up three new young players from the SMUS Tier 2 team and played the bench far more. SMUS fell 2-0 to a skilled Handsworth Junior team from North Vancouver in its morning pool game but then rebounded strongly with a convincing 2-0 win over Brentwood College in the afternoon to claim third place. Brown scored both goals in the victory, Knoblochova earned the shutout, and there were some encouraging performances from new players to the roster as the team is starting to gel.
This week, the SMUS Tier 1 team, still without its Grade 11s, has league games against Lambrick Park on Monday (3:30 pm) and Oak Bay 2 on Wednesday (4:30 pm) in the first action of the Lower Island league at UVic.
The SMUS Tier 2 team will also start its season this week with league games against St. Andrew’s on Monday and Oak Bay 1 on Wednesday. Both their games begin at 4:30 pm at UVic.
Senior Boys Volleyball
The SMUS Senior Boys Volleyball team also began its season this past weekend with the annual Camosun University tournament at PISE. Missing a number of key players due to school out-trips, the Blue Jags went 2-4 in their six tournament matches.
SMUS dropped its first two matches of the tournament on Friday, falling by 2-0 margins to both Oak Bay and Nanaimo’s Dover Bay. But the Blue Jags bounced back in the evening to beat Highland of Comox, taking the third and deciding game of the exciting match by a 15-7 score.
SMUS also won one of its three matches on Saturday. As they did Friday, the Blue Jags utilized a number of Junior call-ups as they beat Parkland and lost to both Lambrick Park and GW Graham of Chilliwack. All three matches were decided by 2-0 counts.
“While the results weren’t the best, I did notice a lot of positive things,” said SMUS Head Coach Brady Doland.
The Blue Jags will compete in their first Lower Island league matches on Wednesday at Oak Bay, beginning at 6 pm. SMUS is off to Langley for the annual Trinity Western University tournament this Friday and Saturday.
Senior Girls Volleyball
The Senior Girls Volleyball team will open its Lower Island league season with matches on Tuesday at Oak Bay, beginning at 6 pm. The Blue Jags will also take part in a tournament at Spectrum this coming weekend.
Senior Boys Soccer
The Senior Boys Soccer team will get is Lower Island Tier 1 league season underway on Thursday with a home match against Oak Bay, a 3:45 pm kickoff. The Senior Jags will then play host to the 10-team Independent Schools Athletic Association (ISAA) tournament beginning Friday on SMUS fields.
The SMUS Junior Boys Soccer team will play its first league game at Royal Bay this Wednesday, a 3:30 pm kickoff.
