The Hunting Hills Lighting senior women’s volleyball team started the Alberta Schools Athletic Association 4A volleyball provincials in Red Deer on a high Thursday.
Hunting Hills won both their matches to open the 10-team tournament in straight sets, knocking off Harry Ainlay 25-19, 25-19 and defeating Foothills Composite 25-22, 25-18. The Lighting will square off against the top-seeded William Aberhart at 11:30 a.m. Friday at Gateway, before taking on St. Francis of Calgary at 5:30 p.m.
The host Lindsay Thurber Raiders stumbled out of the gate, falling to Catholic Central in three sets 20-25, 25-15, 12-15 before losing to Strathcona 22-25, 22-25. The Raiders will try and rebound against the eighth-seed Bowness at 1:30 p.m. before finishing out round-robin against Charles Spencer.
Meanwhile, the Raiders senior men downed Foothills Composite 25-12, 25-12, but fell to Sir Winston Churchill of Calgary 25-20, 20-25, 10-15. Lindsay Thurber will battle the top-ranked Strathcona squad at 11:30 a.m., before concluding the round-robin against Salisbury Composite at 5:30 p.m.
Hunting Hills senior men also split their opening games, beating Chinook 25-23, 25-15 and falling 23-25, 23-25 to William Aberhart. They will play Charles Spencer at 1:30 p.m. before ending round-robin against Jasper Place of Edmonton at 5:30 p.m.
Quarterfinal action gets underway at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, with the senior women’s final at 5:30 p.m. and the men’s final to follow, with each game at Lindsay Thurber.
Spectators are not permitted for round-robin games. All games will be live-streamed and the streams and scores can be found at www.asaa.ca.