The 2011 BC High School AAA senior girls provincial volleyball championship got underway at Ballenas Secondary School in Parksville Thursday morning with the opening ceremonies.
Tournament chair Carrie Philip welcomed the players, who filed out onto the court one team at a time. Parksville mayor Chris Burger was also on hand to mark the start of three days of exciting volleyball featuring the top 16 teams in the province.
The hometown Whalers go into the big annual showcase, which runs Thursday through Saturday, ranked No. 1 off the rock, having recently captured their school's sixth Island title, and first since 2005.
The blue and white kickstarted the B.C.s with three games on Thursday — the Whalers opened against the Sutherland Sabres from North Vancouver at 10:10 a.m., were back in action against the MEI Eagles from Abbotsford at 12:30 p.m., then closed out day one against Richmond's McRoberts Strikers at 2:50 p.m.
There will be games running all day Friday, with bronze medal game going at 3:45 p.m. Saturday and the gold medal match to follow at 5:30 p.m.
Watch The News for the results in our Tuesday edition.