Southern Okanagan Secondary School is off to a good start at the BC High School Boys Valley AA Volleyball Championships, being held in the SOSS Main Gym and at Oliver Elementary School this weekend.

The host Hornets, playing to a nearly full gym in its opening game, took a straight-set victory over rival Princess Margaret Mustangs of Penticton in its opening match.

SOSS took the first set 25-22, and capped off the Best of 3 match with a 25-20 victory in the second game.

“Well, we’ve been excited about it all week,” said a smiling head coach Steve Podmorow after the match. “I think we were all at the point this week by about yesterday’s practice that we just wanted to get it going. It’s always a tough match against Princess Margaret. We always match up well against each other. We’ve had a lot of close sets. Luckily we put it all together and managed to pull out the win.”

The Hornets dominated the opening game, but fell behind early by three in the second game. That’s when the players rallied, pulling away in the deciding game to win by five.

“We were pretty consistent defensively. Most of the time we got the pass up to where we could run our offence,” added Podmorow. “Some guys hit better today than they have in a while, so that’s encouraging for them. Tyson (Marsel) got us a bunch of kills in that first set on the outside which sparked us. And our blocking came to life.”

The Hornets return to the court for a Best of 5 Quarterfinal match at SOSS Main Gym Friday night at 7:30 p.m.

Games begin at 9:30 A.M. Saturday, with the Bronze final at 2:15 p.m. and the championship game at 4 p.m.

At stake – a trip to Langley for the Provincial Championships.

-Dale Cory