The Hidden Valley Huskies’ four-year rule over elementary girls volleyball ended Saturday.

The Holy Family Hurricanes outlasted their counterparts in a thrilling championship final at Porter Creek Secondary School.

After dropping their first set 25-20, the Hurricanes regrouped to win 26-24, and 15-12 to clinch the gold medal.

Hurricanes’ Grade 7 stalwart Paige Poelman played a key role in Holy Family’s championship run, a year after winning the title with the Huskies.

Last year, Poelman and Sonjaa Schmidt joined the Hidden Valley roster to give the school enough players to field a team.

Poelman, 12, said the title win was the result of positive attitudes and hard work.

“Everyone was really nice and caring and they were all supportive of each other,” she said following the medal presentations. “We just kept each other going. It was really fun working with some new teammates.”

It was special to square off with her ex-teammates with the championship on the line, Poelman added.

“They did really well.”

Hurricanes coach Don Fedus agreed with Poelman’s sentiments.

“The girls had fun and stayed positive with each other,” he said. “We spent a lot of time working on technique and they were just able to do that today. Hidden Valley has good coaches and good technique too, but that’s just the way sports goes. One team gets the breaks.”

Fedus praised his players for keeping their composure in a tightly-played final.

Alongside Poelman, Hurricane team members included Megan Anderson, Caitlan Doyle, Brooke Goodman, Laura Kos, Jordan MacDonald, Yebin Park, Abby Roberts, Sienne Secord, Amelia Stewart, Paige Stockley and Amy Vanderkley.

Late in each set, Hidden Valley players showed the full gamut of emotions, jumping with joy for points won and cheering each other up on points lost.

As has become tradition, the Huskies players dropped to the floor and completed a series of pushups after giving up aces.

Regardless of the game result, Huskies coach Colin Teramura said he was proud of his group, which included Grade 5 students.

“The fact that they got here despite being younger and smaller than everyone else is huge,” said Teramura. “I told them before the game ‘It doesn’t matter if you win. Everyone else here is wanting to be in your spot. You guys are the youngest and you’re still in the final. That’s amazing.’”

The young Huskies silver meda-winning roster included Sarah Fortin, Angel McCallum, Phoebe Petkovich, Sonjaa Schmidt, Iliana Stehelin, Nia Teramura and Taia Zakus.

The girls were determined to master the fundamentals this season, said the coach.

“They never quit,” he said.

École Whitehorse Elementary won bronze over Jack Hulland Elementary.