Early this year, it was the Granite Ridge Gryphons who were opening eyes around the senior boys high school volleyball league.

Now, it’s the Marie-Rivier Dragons.

The Dragons won their fourth match in a row Tuesday, 3-0 over the Bayridge Blazers, clinching a playoff berth, in a Kingston Area Secondary Schools Athletic Association match at Bayridge.

Marie-Rivier, whose small enrolment makes it difficult to field competitive teams, is 5-3, with a default win in its future when the schedule rolls around to its date with Frontenac next week.

Granite Ridge, a similarly small school often faced with the same challenges of being competitive, won four of five games at one point early in the season. The Gryphons’ success has been built at home in Sharbot Lake, where they are 4-0—they’re 1-4 on the road—and it was almost as if the baton was somehow passed Oct. 20, when the Gryphons lost 3-1 at Marie-Rivier, a victory that launched the Dragons’ four-game winning streak.

The second win in two days—the Dragons defeated the Holy Cross Crusaders 3-2 in Monday’s only match—lifted Marie-Rivier to fifth place in the 12-team league, half a game behind the fourth-place Loyalist Lancers, who cashed their Frontenac forfeiture Tuesday to improve to 6-3. Poor commitment forced the Falcons to fold their team two weeks ago.

In other matches Tuesday, the Sydenham Golden Eagles improved to 7-2 with a 3-0 win over the Golden Hawks at Napanee; Holy Cross got back above .500 with a 3-0 home-court win over Granite Ridge, and the undefeated Regiopolis Notre Dame Panthers got their ninth win in a row, 3-0 over the Queen Elizabeth Raiders.

Playing at QE, Dylan Medeiros and Dan Niles led the Panthers’ offence with six kills apiece.

Play resumes Wednesday, when Loyalist will visit QE.