The Selkirk Storm are rested and raring to go with the single-A senior girls' high school volleyball provincials set to get underway Thursday in Abbotsford.

The Storm punched their ticket a few weeks back, going undefeated at the Kootenay zones in Castlegar.

"When we won zones, the celebration wasn't over the top. It was sort of like the check mark on one more goal, leading to our ultimate goal of winning the provincials," said head coach Joe Ambrosio.

"I think last year when we spoke about medaling at provincials, it was more my words than the kids actually believing in it. This year, there's a sense with all the players that we can win this, and there's nobody out there that is that much better than us. We're just as good as the No. 1 ranked team so it will be up to us."

The Storm enter the tournament ranked fifth in B.C., but they compare favourably to a couple of teams above them.

Selkirk has played No. 3 Credo Christian twice this season, splitting against the Langley-based school.

Currently at No. 4, Immaculata also split with Selkirk.

Last year, the Storm represented the Kootenays at the AA level, but struggled despite high expectations.

"I said to a few of the Grade 11s that are there: really look around, absorb, remember and take this for next year and right away in September, let's use this atmosphere as part of our team goals," said Ambrosio.

He said the Storm's goals heading into the year weren't about winning tournaments, but rather about constant team success and taking what was learned in practice and implementing it on the court.

"For us, it resulted in a quite a bit of success at tournaments, but there were tournaments where we didn't finish Top 3 and we walked away feeling very good about how we played," he said.

The Storm did finish Top 3 in six tournaments, taking top spot three times. They played in more than 60 matches this season, piling up 131 sets. Although that's more volleyball than the team played last year, the timing was a little more strategic.

Where the 2009 side played all the way through to provincials, the 2010 group has taken off the two weeks prior to the championships. They also cut down on the travel, going to the Okanagan three times instead of four, and getting it out of the way in early fall.

"We tried to be fresh and stay a little bit more enthused about the game at this time of year, and it's actually worked out that way," said Ambrosio. "We've actually played our best ball the last three tournaments."

The Storm are in a provincials' pool with Credo, No. 9 Cedar Community (Nanaimo) and No. 15 Cedars Christian (Prince George).

The tournament will be crawling with university and college scouts, and the Storm have a couple of players who are attracting attention. Starting power Brianne Rauch is expected to play for a Canadian Interuniversity Sport school next year, while middle Silka Schacher is garnering interest from college programs.

Known as the Twin Towers (6-foot-1 and 6-foot-2 respectively), the co-captains bring more than just athletic ability to the team: With half the starting lineup consisting of Grade 10s, Rauch and Schacher have been leaders and mentors as the youngsters jumped into senior volleyball.

The captain of last year's team, Jadine Jarrett has also helped. She has been an assistant coach while attending the College of the Rockies, giving Ambrosio some welcome insights.

He has asked her about specific things he did as a coach last year, wondering if something he said during a timeout was effective, for example.

"Quite often she's been able to say, 'Nope, it didn't,' or 'What you should have done...' With her being one year removed, she's been a great coaching asset," said Ambrosio.