Steinbach Christian has enjoyed a lot of success on the basketball court.

The Flames are the reigning two-time provincial varsity boys champions and will be looking to join Goose Lake of Roblin, Lord Selkirk and the Vincent Massey Vikings of Brandon as schools who have captured three straight "AA" championships.

The varsity boys volleyball team may not own a championship banner but the finalist banner this years squad brought home from Carman Collegiate earlier this month - that one is pretty special.

The Flames, who were the fifth seed, battled but fell short losing to the host Cougars 19 & 20 in the final.

"We came into Carman hoping to peak and that's exactly what we did," said Steinbach Christian coach Roger Harder. "We had a great round robin, a great playoff run and just came up a bit short against Carman."

"They carried the home crowd momentum and we just couldn't stop them on the left side," added Harder. "We came up short on a little bit of defensive play and they carried the momentum they got from the home crowd."

The Flames defeated the Cougars, Teulon and Souris in the round robin.

Their only loss was to the top seed Niverville Panthers.

Steinbach Christian knocked off the number two seed in the quarterfinals as they beat Grunthal's Green Valley Pirates 26-24, 25-20 and then survived a marathon with Gabrielle Roy of Ile des Chenes.

The Flames rallied to beat Les Roys 22-25, 25-22, 16-14 in the semifinals.

Coach Harder didn't feel his volleyball team ran out of gas in the final against Carman.

"I don't think fatigue was a huge factor. Guys were a little bit sore and a little bit tired but when it comes down to the finals, you have to bring your "A" game and we didn't quite do that. It was a good battle, good experience. For a lot of our guys, this was their first time in that type of environment for volleyball so hopefully in the future we can glean off of that."

Two Flames who played their final volleyball match for Steinbach Christian, Liam Buhler and Austin Enns, were named tournament all-stars.

"Liam carried us all season," said Harder. "He was one of our big cannons and he was our go-to-guy all year. Austin just so steadily improved throughout the year. I was so proud of him. He really took the leadership from the setting position especially since one of our other setters was injured. I was very excited how he stepped forward. But how the whole team improved -  I'm so pumped about that as a coach. Everybody contributed, everybody had a role and everybody fulfilled their role. Because of that we had the finish that we did, finishing second in the province."