The Moscrop Panthers became the first Burnaby school to make it to the final four at the B.C. high school AAA boys' volleyball championships.
The Panthers finished in fourth place at the provincials following a five-set loss to top-seed Fraser Heights in the bronze-medal final in Kelowna on Dec. 1.
Moscrop took the pretournament favourite to a tiebreak following games of 25-22, 22-25, 27-25, 2325, before falling 15-12.
Grade 11 power Jerome Cross was named a first-team tournament all-star. Zach Or was also named to the all-tournament second team, while Moscrop senior Marcus Jung was named the most outstanding libero.
The Panthers were also singled out as the most sportsmanlike team.
"We're really proud of the boys, and more importantly, how much respect the team gained," said Moscrop co-coach Ed Chin.
The West Burnaby boys upset No. 4 Earl Marriott 25-22, 25-18, 27-25 to become one of just a small handful of Lower Mainland schools to ever reach a provincial AAA semifinal.
"Beating (Marriott) in three sets, after that, everything was gravy. I've never seen our coaches as proud of us as that," said Jung. "I think we took them by surprise. We just had fun with it. It was one of the last games as a family - win or lose, we felt we'd already won."
Earlier, Moscrop made senior boys' volleyball school history, when they won their first-ever Lower Mainland championship banner following a nailbiting 19-17 tiebreaking final set over Vancouver champion Eric Hamber at Moscrop Secondary School on Nov. 15.
The Panthers took the honourable mention Eric Hamber Griffins to four championship points before Ricky Sun's attack was blocked out of bounds for the banner-winning final point.
Earlier in the month, a core group of Moscrop boys capped the regular season with a fifth consecutive Burnaby/New Westminster district volleyball banner.
"We've worked five years for this. We've worked too hard," said Jonathan Kum, who served up the winning point in the thrillingly tense final set. "I'm so happy. It's one of the biggest achievements of my life."
Cross was named the tournament MVP at the Mainlands, while Or and Sun were also named to the all-tournament team.
"Right now, we got our goal. Now that we won, we're going to try and enjoy the time we have together, and we'll be happy with whatever happens," Cross said.
