The B.C. Grass Volleyball Championships took place in Whistler last weekend (Aug. 18-19) at Myrtle Philip Community Centre, attracting dozens of teams from all over the province.
Local volleyball pros Jas Michalski and Tim Bonnell went in with home field advantage and made the most of it to make it to the finals. The tournament didn’t start that well for them, with the pair dropping three straight in their pool on the first morning. Although they expected to be relegated to the consolations rounds, the tournament was set up in such a way that they would have to face one of the top teams in the first round of elimination.
They dug deep and managed to upset their top-seeded opponents to make it into the quarter-finals.
Michalski and Bonnell, encouraged by their performance to make it into the finals, hit their stride and won the next round in straight sets.
In the semi-final round, they faced one of the teams that beat them that morning. More confident, they took the game down to the wire and won with a three-setter.
In the finals, the pair faced another team they had faced that morning – a team from the Okanagan that Michalski and Bonnell had faced in two previous Whistler Provincial Finals.
Michalski’s serves put their opponents on their heals through the first set, which they won 21-12. The second set went back and forth with both teams tied at 19 before the Okanagan team went on to win the match, forcing a third game.
The locals got off to an early lead, but their opponents rallied back with some excellent serves. Michalski and Bonnell missed a few serves of their own and had to settle for a 15-13 loss.
However, their silver medal performance in the grass championships put Michalski and Bonnell in a good position for the Beach Provincial Championships at Spanish Beach in Vancouver this weekend (Aug. 25).
