Photo credit David Moll
CALGARY (CIS) – For the second time in as many years, the Western Mustangs ended the season of the Trinity Western Spartans in the national quarterfinal, taking an epic 3-2 victory (25-21, 22-25, 19-25, 27-25, 16-14) Thursday night to advance to the semi-final round at the 2014 CIS men’s volleyball championship.
It’s a repeat of the opening round in 2013, when the Mustangs came back from a two-sets-to-none deficit to upend the Spartans in Quebec City. This time, Western needed to overcome a 2-1 deficit and dodged two Trinity Western match point opportunities to move on to the semi-final.
Western will play the winner of the nightcap between No. 2 McMaster and host No. 7 Calgary in the second of two semi-finals on Friday night, with first serve slated for 8 p.m. MT, live on www.CIS-SIC.tv.
The most exciting match of the day in the Jack Simpson Gym ended with a pair of outstanding extra-point sets, with Western coming back to take the fourth 27-25 before a service ace by Justin Scapinello put the punctuation mark on a 16-14 win in the fifth set.
“Pure determination,” said a fired-up Western player of the game Phil James. “There’s really nothing else. We played our game, we fought hard. We have guys on the court who were almost never on the court but we were just determined to win. I love seeing the guys like this…I thought this was going to be one of my final games, and what a way to end it.”
"I feel heartbroken for our seniors,” said CIS coach of the year Ben Josephson from Trinity Western. “We weren't able to advance in the tournament in their final year.”
James, a fourth-year middle from Ottawa, was impressive from his spot in the centre with 11 kills on 20 attempts for the Mustangs, adding an ace and three blocks to earn top player honours for the Mustangs.
Western would just not go away, even trailing by two late in the fourth and facing a match point for the Spartans at 24-23. A Luke Sim kill tied it at 24, and then a heads-up play by setter Sean McKay with a second-contact dump gave the Mustangs the advantage at 25-24. McKay and James combined to stuff Brad Kuske for the final point of the set as Western took it 27-25.
The fifth set was tight from start to finish, with Western holding the edge most of the way. A brief run by the Spartans set up their second match point opportunity of the night, but Derek Thiessen’s service error tied it at 14, and two points later Scapinello’s ace sent the Mustangs bench into a frenzy.
Garrett May was Western’s kill leader with 21, followed by James’ 11 and 10 more from Sim. Scapinello picked up a match-high 13 digs on the night, and McKay picked up 50 set assists for the victorious Mustangs.
The tandem of Nicholas Del Bianco and Lucas Van Berkel picked up 18 kills each for Trinity Western, while Kufske added 11 digs on the night. CIS rookie of the year Adam Schreimer, the Spartans’ setter, recorded 48 assists and was in on seven TWU blocks.
Trinity Western out-hit Western at just over 30 per cent against the Mustangs’ 21.5, though Western did end up with one more kill at 61. The Spartans, however, committed 20 service errors in the match compared to just 12 for Western, and their significant 19-8 advantage in blocking wasn’t enough to advance to the semi-final.
After winning back-to-back national titles in 2011 and 2012, the Spartans find themselves on the consolation side of the draw for the second straight year and will face the loser of the McMaster-Calgary match-up in the consolation semi-final Friday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. MT.
Western
Kills: Garrett May (21), Phil James (11), Luke Sim
(10)
Points: Garrett May (22), Phil James (14)
Blocks: Luke Sim, Justin Scapinello, Phil Games (3)
Digs: Justin Scapinello (13), Matt Silver (8)
Service aces: Luke Sim, Doug Austrom, Justin Scapinello, Sean
McKay, Phil James (1)
Player of the match: Phil James
Trinity Western
Kills: Brad Kufske, Nicholas Del Bianco (18), Derek Thiessen
(8)
Points: Brad Kufske, Nicholas Del Bianco (23)
Blocks: Brad Kufske (8), Branden Schmidt (7)
Digs: Brad Kufske (11), Nicholas Del Bianco, Tyler Koslowsky
(9)
Service aces: Nicholas Del Bianco (4), Brad Kufske, Derek Thiessen
(1)
Player of the match: Nicholas Del Bianco
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 vs. No. 7 Calgary (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
Friday, February 28
12:30 Consolation #1: Dalhousie vs. Montreal (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
14:30 Consolation #2: Trinity Western vs. Loser QF #4 (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
18:00 Semifinal #1: Laval vs. Alberta (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
20:00 Semifinal #2: Western vs. Winner QF #4 (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
Saturday, March 1
13:00 5th place (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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