Photo credit David Moll
CALGARY (CIS) – In a classic Canada West battle, the Trinity Western Spartans came out on top when they defeated the hosting Calgary Dinos 3-1 (19-25, 26-24, 25-16, 25-22) in the second consolation semi-final of the CIS men’s volleyball championship.
Despite the major upset the Spartans experienced in one of yesterday’s quarterfinals, Trinity Western’s head coach Ben Josephson was pleased with his team’s efforts today in advancing to the fifth place match.
“Both teams are coming off losses yesterday so there are mixed emotions because you want to compete and play well, but you’re dealing with some disappointment from yesterday so I think both teams showed a lot of character.”
“I was pleased with our guys. They started out a little slow and that’s to be expected and then they ended up finding their rhythm and got in a good days performance. It was great to get a chance to cycle our seniors off and get our younger guys on and it was a good way to honour our seniors and give the younger guys a chance to play on the national stage.”
Player of the Match Ryan Sclater picked up 11 kills and 11 digs in the match while rookie Blake Scheerhoorn led the Spartans in kills with 14. Second-team All-Canadian Nicholas Del Bianco added 10 kills for the Spartans and setter and CIS Rookie of the Year Adam Schriemer recorded a game-high 45 assists.
For the Dinos, Greg Mann ended his career with Calgary as the Player of the Match and with a game-high 19 kills.and eight digs Third-year Connor Frehlich added 10 kills for the Dinos while setter Alex Cook got the start and recorded 39 assists. Libero Darcee Froese added a team-high 10 digs.
In the first, the Dinos and Spartans seemed evenly matched as they were tied at 14. It wasn’t until after the technical that Calgary turned up the heat. Fueled by the crowd, the Dinos drew from that and pushed their lead to five at 21-16 thanks to a big kill from Mann. From there, the momentum remained with the home team and they went on to take the first set 25-19.
The second set saw Trinity Western earn a lead that they kept up until 16-13. From there, the Dinos slowly worked on closing the gap. It was at 23-21 when a single block from Mann got the Dinos fired up, forcing Josephson to call a timeout. From there, both teams battled it out, but it was the Spartans who ultimately came out with the win to tie the game up one in extra points at 26-24.
An eventful two sets followed as the Dinos were unable to stop the Spartan’s powerhouse offence. Despite Calgary’s best efforts to switch up the line ups and get new faces on the court, it was to no avail. Trinity Western went on to win the following two sets 25-16 and 25-22 to keep their season alive and play for fifth-place tomorrow.
Josephson hopes the win today will get his team back on track for tomorrow’s fifth-place match.
“Hopefully we can continue to build on what we’ve done and get a little bit better tomorrow. We’ll do some prep tonight for those guys and we haven’t seen them in a couple years so it’s always exciting to play somebody out of conference. We’re really looking forward to playing Dalhousie and Dan is a good friend and a great coach so I’m sure he’ll have a good plan for us so it’ll be a good way to end off the season.”
The No. 3 Trinity Western Spartans will take on the No. 4 Dalhousie Tigers at 1 p.m. at Jack Simpson Gymnasium.
Trinity Western
Kills: Blake Scheerhoorn (14), Ryan Sclater (11)
Points: Blake Scheerhoorn (15), Ryan Sclater (14)
Blocks: Daniel Grant (4), Branden Schmidt (3)
Digs: Ryan Sclater (11), Tyler Koslowsky (8)
Service aces: Branden Schmidt (2)
Player of the match: Blake Scheerhoorn
Calgary
Kills: Greg Mann (19), Connor Frehlich (10)
Points: Greg Mann (20), Connor Frehlich (10)
Blocks: Sean Tuff, Greg Mann (2)
Digs: Darcee Froese (10), Alex Cook (9)
Service aces: Andrew Visser (2)
Player of the match: Greg Mann
CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE (all times MOUNTAIN TIME)
Thursday, February 27
12:30 Quarter-final #1: No. 5 Laval 3 No. 4 Dalhousie 0 (25-16,
25-18, 25-22)
14:30 Quarter-final #2: No. 1 Alberta 3 No. 8 Montreal 0 (25-19,
25-18, 25-12)
18:00 Quarter-final #3: No. 6 Western 3 No. 3 Trinity Western 2
(25-21, 22-25, 19-25, 27-25, 15-12)
20:00 Quarter-final #4: No. 2 McMaster 3 No. 7 Calgary 1 (24-26,
21-25, 17-25, 22-25)
Friday, February 28
12:30 Consolation #1: No. 4 Dalhousie 3 No. 8 Montreal 2 (25-17,
27-29, 16-25, 25-23, 15-13)
14:30 Consolation #2: Trinity Western vs. Calgary (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
18:00 Semifinal #1: Laval vs. Alberta (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
20:00 Semifinal #2: Western vs. McMaster (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
Saturday, March 1
13:00 Dalhousie vs. Trinity Western (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
15:00 Bronze medal (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
18:00 Championship final (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
About Canadian Interuniversity Sport
Canadian Interuniversity Sport is the national governing body of university sport in Canada. Every year, 11,000 student-athletes and 700 coaches from 55 universities and four regional associations vie for 21 national championships in 12 different sports. CIS also provides high performance international opportunities for Canadian student-athletes at Winter and Summer Universiades, as well as numerous world university championships. For further information, visit www.cis-sic.ca or follow us on:
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