Carter Henderson, AJ Poytress and Kerem Aydin celebrate a point against Immanuel Christian Eagles.
The F.P. Walshe Flyers found the silver lining Saturday night following a battle from the ages at the 2A zone high school boys volleyball playoffs.
The gritty Flyers pushed the host Immanuel Christian Eagles to three close sets before losing in the gold medal match.
The Flyers are Branson Orr, AJ Poytress, Carter Henderson, Kerem Aydin, Logan Boot, James Neels, Liam Beer, Kornell Vandenhoek, Leo Korkunov, Surus Yilmax and Rylan Baxter.
The Flyers opened the tournament Friday morning with a sweep of Crowsnest Consolidated Panthers.
The Flyers won the first set 25-0 and tamed the Panthers 25-15 in the second set.
In their next match Friday the Flyers needed two sets against County Central Hawks from Vulcan.
F.P. Walshe won the first set 25-14 and took the second set 25-17.
Up next for the Flyers were the No. 1-ranked Immanuel Christian Eagles on Friday night.
This match between the top two ranked teams had fans on the edge of their seats.
The Flyers suffered their first loss of the tournament as they fell 25-13 to the Eagles in the first set.
The Fort Macleod club shrugged that off and rallied to beat Immanuel Christian 25-21 in the second set to even the match and force a tie-breaker.
The Eagles got control early in the third set and cruised to a 15-7 win over the Flyers.
In their final match of round-robin the Flyers swept Livingstone Sabres.
F.P. Walshe won the first set 25-18 and closed out the sweep with a 25-14 win in the second set.
Immanuel Christian placed first after round robin with eight wins and one loss, followed by F.P. Walshe (7-2), Livingstone (5-3), Crowsnest Pass (2-7) and County Central (1-8).
That set up a playoff between Crowsnest Pass and County Central first thing Saturday morning.
The Hawks advanced to the semifinals by beating the Panthers 25-21 and 25-21.
The Flyers took on Livingstone Sabres in one semifinal while the Hawks advanced to play Immanuel Christian in the other semifinal.
The Flyers took care of business on Saturday afternoon, sweeping the Sabres 25-17 and 25-18 to move on to the gold medal game.
In the other semifinal, Immanuel Christian grounded the Hawks 25-12 and 25-15 to reach the gold medal match.
Livingstone and County Central were relegated to the bronze medal match, which Livingstone won 27-25 and 25-18.
The Eagles came out flying in the gold medal match, beating the Flyers 25-19 in the first set.
F.P. Walshe fought back, edging the Eagles 25-23 in a thrilling second set.
That set up a tie-breaker, from which the Eagles emerged as champions following a narrow 15-13 win over the Flyers.
