Mitch SorensenThe Golden Bears and Pandas volleyball teams earned gold and silver, respectively, at last weekend’s Canada West Championships, ensuring both teams an opportunity at CIS Nationals this weekend.
The volley Bears came in to the Final Four as the top seeded team, giving them home court advantage and making them the team to beat. With their top seeding came a quarterfinal bye, which gave them a full two weeks to prepare and rest before their semifinal match against the UBC Thunderbirds.
A physical T-Birds team came in ready to go against the Bears on Friday night, and they showed it in the first set. The T-Birds capitalized on the Bears’ unforced errors and used solid blocking combined with a steady attack to take the first set 25-21. Invigorated by this setback, the Bears seemed to be a different team throughout the rest of the match. A string of five thundering serves from Kevin Proudfoot set the tone for the rest of the match. The Bears were too much for the Thunderbirds, as they overpowered them in the next three sets to win the match 3-1.
“When we were done, in my head I thought it was one of our best weekends of the season,” Golden Bears assistant coach Brock Davidiuk said. “I think we still had some dips in our performance and in our ability to maintain our competitive presence on the court, but they weren’t as bad as they had been throughout the year.”
Having cemented themselves as CIS Championship qualifiers by making it to the Canada West finals, the Bears went into Saturday’s match against the Trinity Western University Spartans riding high after their statement win.
Trinity Western was led by two-time defending Canada West MVP Nick del Bianco, who also led the Spartans in kills and aces. But the Bears managed to out-kill and outmatch the Spartans. Canada West First Team All-Star Ryley Barnes’ 22 kills led an offence that pounded the Spartans from all corners of the court. Unquestionably, the star of the tournament was third-year setter Brett Walsh, who averaged a ridiculous 15.5 assists per set while adding 23 digs to being declared the Final Four MVP. Walsh quarterbacked the Bears’ offence to an authoritative 3-1 win over the Spartans to win Canada West.
“I thought the guys did a pretty good job, especially not letting the nationals qualification get in the way of the game on Saturday,” Davidiuk said. “The guys came out really focused and really willing to compete against a good team, a team we always like competing against in Trinity Western.”
The Bears will take this mentality to nationals in Saskatchewan, where their goal is clear.
“We had to take the Tantramar Trophy back to Saskatchewan earlier in the year on the bus,” Davidiuk said. “We’re hoping to take the Tantramar back with us on the bus from nationals, that’s our goal.”
Like the Bears, the Pandas seemed poised to capture their first Canada West championship since 2012.
On Thursday, the Pandas faced the UBC Thunderbirds, a powerhouse program that has won six out of the last seven CIS championships. A tight match throughout, the Pandas showed immense mental toughness in coming back from 2-1 to win the match in five sets.
The Pandas were out-hit and out-blocked by a UBC side that came ready to battle, but in the end, prevailed due to strong defence, minimizing errors, and serve line dominance. The defensive effort was led by libero Jessie Niles, who had 23 of the Pandas’ 77 digs, and was given Player of the Match honours for the Pandas. The Pandas also aced UBC ten times, keeping them out of system. In the end, the Pandas outlasted their opponents and ground out a tough win.
Already having booked their trip to the CIS Championships, the volley Pandas were looking to make a statement on Friday night against the Trinity Western Spartans. For the first two sets, it appeared as they’d do just that.
Left side Kacey Otto spun five aces in the first two sets alone, and the Pandas looked to be a half-step ahead of Trinity Western all over the court. The third set, however, was a different story. The match settled out, and the two teams went point for point, with wild momentum changes all over the court. In the end, the tenacious blocking and attacking game of the Spartans was too much for the Pandas, and they fell in the fifth set 17-15.
After losing a heartbreaker in the gold-medal match, the Pandas plan on using the experience to learn and move forward to the CIS tournament.
“I think learning that we can’t take any points for granted, that we have to understand kind of why we lost and how we lost,” outside hitter Meg Casault said. “Moving forward, knowing what we have to do when and if we have to come up against Trinity again or any other team in nationals.”
The Pandas seem to have put the loss behind them and are ready to move on to CIS Championships in Toronto next week.
“We’ve shown to be really resilient this year,” head coach Laurie Eisler said. “We’ll be fine, and I expect us to play really well.
“Experience is often what you talk about when you don’t get what you want, we didn’t get the gold medal, but you know I really believe in their ability to really look honestly at themselves and grow up really fast.”
