The Delta Pacers senior ultimate team competed in its third straight high school provincial ultimate championships in Kamloops May 23 to 24, coming home with a 13th place finish.
The Pacers playoffs started with a play-in win over AR MacNeill to qualify for the South Fraser Championships.
Ranked 11th of out 12 teams, the Pacers upset Richmond Secondary, Richmond’s top regular season team. After a loss in the quarterfinal to the eventual South Fraser champion, Queen Elizabeth, the Pacers rallied for upset victories over Holy Cross and McMath to earn a spot at provincials.
“The team improves every time they play, playing their best in the South Fraser tournament. Seventeen of the 22 players on the team were new to ultimate this year, so making provincials was highly unexpected,” said coach Dave Jones.
Led by a couple of highly competitive and determined seniors, Ryley Ferguson and Joanna Rybaltowicz, the Pacers were strong on defence and solid enough on offence to compete with South Fraser’s top teams.
At the provincials, the Pacers were in a tough pool that included the number four and number ranked teams.
Ferguson led the team with 10-plus assists for scores, while Ronin Sandhu scored 10-plus goals. Addyson Murray and Paige Day led the girls’ side for highest percentage of points scored while on the field, while Adam Frank and Mattais Ljundberg led the boys side. The Pacers matched their seeding by finishing 13th after a dramatic, universe point win over Oak Bay.
“South Frasers and provincials are full of teams with multiple players with years of club Ultimate experience, so the ability for the kids to compete against experienced teams is impressive,” added Jones.
For the first year ever, DSS also has a junior ultimate team that competed in South Frasers and Tier II provincials in Surrey.
“Having the kids learn to throw and play at a younger age will definitely strengthen the depth of future senior teams,” said Jones.
Junior coach Greg Day added, “We had 35 kids, mainly from Grades 9 & 10, come out this year, which allowed us to form two teams for league play. Our top 20 players formed the playoff team which came fourth at South Fraser’s, which is a really respectable showing for a bunch of first year players.”
