SURREY – On February 22nd and 23rd,  The St. George’s table tennis team traveled to Semiahmoo Secondary School to compete in the annual B.C Secondary School Provincial Championships.  It was an extremely competitive environment with over 20 schools from across B.C and having come up short last year, Saints wanted to take home a title.

This year, the team competed in two divisions, the team tier 1 and 2, as well as the individual singles. For the team matches, each round consisted of a best of 5 set between 2 schools, with one team member from each side playing singles.  If a game 5 was forced, doubles would be played.

In singles, the team didn’t do as well as they hoped, however, had several players make it to the round of 32 and even Ethan Chen making it to the round of 16.  The singles was an extremely competitive environment and many of the players had difficult brackets.

Saints easily cruised through the round robin matches, coming out of their bracket 3-0 in both the tier 1 and tier 2 divisions, beating McMath, Moscrop, and Vancouver Tech.

In the quarterfinals of the Tier 1 team event, Saints Tier 1 played one of the best teams in the tournament, Kitsilano.  Saints won the first game but lost the next 2, falling behind 2-1. A super clutch win from Saints’ Thomas Yuen forced a game 5. Facing a win or go home situation, Saints’ Ethan Chen and Justin Ling took on two Kitsilano players in a doubles match.  The match was extremely close with the score going back and forth, but Saints eventually came out on top and advanced to the semis.

In the semifinals of the Tier 1 division,  Saints was matched against one of the tournament favorites, Burnaby North.   These two teams have had a rivalry in years past and this set showed exactly why.  Every match forced a game 5, and with the score continuously going back and forth, it was extremely hard to tell who would come out on top.  Strong performances from Saints’ Ethan Chen and Thomas Yuen forced a game 5 in another life or death scenario.   Once again, the duo of Ethan Chen and Justin Ling faced off against two Burnaby North players, but unlike the first 4 matches, cruised through with a 3-0 victory, giving Saints the 3-2 set win and advancing to the Tier 1 finals.

After going all the way to the finals of Tier 2, Saints faced off against the Kitsilano Tier 2 team.  Saints started off strong with a quick 2-0 lead with players Mitri Traile and Shiven Lohia cruising by their opponents in 3-0 victories.  After Kits made it 2-1, the win was confirmed thanks to Finn Young and his very decisive smashes winning the 4th game and giving Saints the 3-1 Tier 2 victory.

In the finals of Tier 1, Saints played against tournament favorite and defending champions, J.N Burnett.  After taking the first game with excellent play from Thomas Yuen, Saints struggle the next 2 games, with extremely close matches from both Justin Ling and Ethan Chen falling just short.  In another pressuring situation, Thomas Yuen took it into his hands to try to send Saints to another game 5.  Unfortunately, he was matched up against the defending singles champion from Burnett, and after an extremely close 4th game, fell just short, and left Saints with yet again another silver.

“We tried as hard as we could”, said Saints’ player Finn Young. “At the end of the day we made it all the way to the finals, and even though we came up short, we still got the silver and won the Tier 2 division.”

The Silver at the B.C Provincials marks the end of the Saints Table Tennis season.  With another spectacular and successful season finished, Saints has high hopes to be in the running for next year’s provincial title.