CIS men's volleyball Friday roundup: Rouge et Or win 9th consecutive RSEQ title

HAMILTON, Ont. – The Western Mustangs men's volleyball team swept the Waterloo Warriors in three straight sets on Friday evening at McMaster's Burridge Gym to advance to tomorrow's OUA Final Four Championship game and earn a spot in next week's CIS Men's Volleyball Championship in Calgary.

The win extends the Mustangs winning streak to 10 games and after defeating the Waterloo Warriors in one of two semi-final matchups at the Final Four event the CIS No. 8 Mustangs will now face either the McMaster Marauders or Ryerson Rams in the gold medal game.

After finishing the regular season in second place in the OUA with a 17-3 record and earning a first round playoff bye, the Mustangs faced the Warriors for the first game of the Final Four in a highly anticipated battle between two of the top teams in the OUA. The CIS No. 9 Warriors (16-4) advanced to the Final Four after defeating the Queen's Gaels 3-1 last week in their quarterfinal matchup.

Friday's semi-final contest marked the third meeting between the Mustangs and the Warriors this season and although the purple and white came out on top in the two previous contests, both games needed the full five sets to be decided. After the Mustangs squeaked by with a 15-13 fifth-set win in their last meeting with the Waterloo squad, another five set game was expected between the two evenly matched teams.

Three sets would be all the Mustangs needed this time around, however, as they started the match strong and held on all the way through a tight third set to record their strongest win of the season against the Waterloo squad.

Off to a commanding start, Western took an early 6-1 advantage and extended the lead to 16-8 midway through the first set. With tough serves, including six aces, the Mustangs were able to keep momentum away from the Waterloo squad and put them on the defensive, claiming a 25-15 first-set win for the purple and white.

The second set saw the Warriors and Mustangs trade points until a turning point in favour of the purple and white when a missed Waterloo serve was followed by two aces from Phil James to give the Western team a 9-4 lead. Midway through the set it would be James again behind a shift in momentum as he recorded a huge kill followed immediately by a stuff block to keep the five-point lead at 15-10. The Mustangs would only extend their lead from there, walking away with another 25-15 win. Justin Scapinello was a force to be reckoned with on the right side, hitting 54% on nine kills from 15 attempts in the frame.

After taking the first two sets, the Mustangs entered the third just 25 points away from a gold medal game berth but were unable to gain early momentum as the Warriors took an 11-8 lead, their biggest of the match and enough to earn Western's first timeout of the contest.

It would prove beneficial as the Mustangs put an end to the Waterloo run and battled back to a two-point deficit but were unable to reverse the lead as the teams continued to trade points to eventually put the Warriors up 18-16. Once again it was James to give life to the Mustangs as he earned two big points from double stuff blocks with Garret May to tie the game at 18. Derek Kuiack entered the set for Doug Austrom and added a kill to the Western comeback, but Zachary Doherty caused problems from the service line for the Mustangs at a critical time in the game to once again give the Warriors a two-point lead.

The Mustangs refused to lie down, however, and a quick set to the middle from Sean Mckay to James put the purple and white behind by one at 22-21. A kill from Scapinello gave the Mustangs the advantage at 23-22 and they wouldn't look back, with May serving the final point and Scapinello once again putting the ball to the ground with the attack as Western took the third set 25-22.

With a surprising 12 and eight service errors on the night for the Warriors and Mustangs, respectively, both teams struggled with consistency in the opening match of the Final Four Championships hosted by McMaster. James and May proved why they were named OUA First Team All-Stars with a team-high 15 points each on the day, while Scapinello added 12 of his own. Luke Sim rounded out the Western offence with ten points in the contest, while Second Team All-Star Mckay led the team defensively with six digs in three sets.

The Mustangs will face the winner of the McMaster and Ryerson semi-final matchup tomorrow at 7 p.m. in the Final Four gold medal game at Burridge Gym. Regardless of the outcome of tomorrow's game both the Mustangs and their opponents in the gold medal final will head to Calgary next week for the CIS Men's Volleyball Championship beginning on February 28.

QUEBEC CITY – The Université Laval Rouge et Or won their 9th consecutive RSEQ men’s volleyball title, the 30th title in their history, after a 3-2 win over the Université de Montreal Carabins.

Source: Fraser Caldwell, McMaster Communications

HAMILTON, Ont. - They started slowly on Friday, but the Marauders gradually built up steam as they rolled through a semifinal sweep of the Ryerson Rams.
 
Set scores were 25-22, 25-19 and 25-10 for the CIS no. 1-ranked Marauders, who sealed a place at next week's CIS Championship in Calgary with the win. With the Western Mustangs similarly sweeping the Waterloo Warriors earlier on Friday, the Marauders and Mustangs will rematch their OUA final of a year ago.
 
Second-year outside Stephen Maar led the Marauders – and the match – with 15.5 points in the win, converting 12 of 21 hitting attempts versus just three errors (42.9 per cent) and adding three total blocks. OUA Player of the Year Jori Mantha followed with 13.5 points, while Jayson McCarthy had 12.5 points and hit 9-15 with just two errors (46.7 per cent).
 
Coleman Lucas was Ryerson's high scorer in a losing effort, posting nine points on 7-11 hitting with one error (54.5 per cent) and two aces.
 
The visiting Rams got the best of the match's early exchanges, feeding off the energy of a raucous travelling crowd to take a 10-5 lead in the first set, and force a timeout from the host Marauders. But McMaster began to immediately chip away at the deficit after the break, and had retaken the initiative after the technical timeout.
 
Improved serving played a large part in the resurgence, as McMaster pushed ahead to 20-15 and put itself in sight of the first set finish line. Ryerson fought back to within striking distance, but McCarthy hammered a shot down the right line to bring up set point, and Mantha went cross court just two points later to seal the first for the home side.
 
Side-out volleyball reigned to open the second set, but McMaster managed to pull ahead ever so slightly at the technical timeout when McCarthy ended a prolonged rally with a cross-court kill for 16-13. The Marauders surged toward the 25-point mark with the help of a few costly Ryerson errors, such as the Rams' decision to leave an Austin Campion-Smith float serve to drop on the left side line for 20-14.
 
The gap was too wide for the Rams to claw back, and Mantha polished off consecutive points to win the second set for McMaster, coming up with an inspired shot through a double block to salvage a broken play for 25-19.
 
Down two sets, Ryerson seemed out of both ideas and energy, as McMaster quickly pounced to open the third. The Marauders were firing on all cylinders, and when Mantha savagely killed off an overpass, McMaster was doubling up Ryerson at 14-7. Two points later, Tyson Alexander produced a solo stuff block to bring the teams into the technical timeout.
 
The Rams weren't helping their own cause, with errors piling onto the Marauders' already sizable lead. A Ryerson attack flew well wide of the right line, and brought up a last-ditch timeout from the visitors at 20-10. Five points later, it was mercifully over, as McCarthy followed an Alexander ace with a wipe off a double block and down for 25-10.
 
McMaster and Western return to familiar circumstances on Saturday, competing for an OUA title at the Burridge Gym for a second consecutive year. The Marauders have won each of their past eight meetings with the Mustangs in all competitions, with their last loss to Western coming in January 2012. The OUA final is set for its first serve at 7:00 p.m. The match will be broadcast live on Hamilton's Cable 14 and marauders.ca/live.

Source: Mark Janzen, TWU Sports Information
 
LANGLEY, BC – The Alberta Godlen Bears advanced to the Canada West gold medal match with a 3-0 (25-17, 26-24, 25-17) win in the conference semifinals on Friday at the Langley Events Centre.
 
The win also earns Alberta one of two Canada West berths into the CIS national championship in Calgary, Feb. 27-Mar. 1.
 
Alberta will now play in the Canada West gold medal match on Saturday, 7 p.m. at the LEC. The WolfPack will play for bronze Saturday at 5 p.m.
 
The Bears were led by Ryley Barnes, who had 11 kills while Jay Olmstead and Kevin Proudfoot had eight kills each. Setter Brett Walsh had a match-high four blocks to go with 31 assists. Matt McCreary had a match-high four aces.
 
Thompson Rivers Brad Gunter, who was named Canada West MVP earlier in the day, led the WolfPack with 16 kills, 14 digs and two aces. Jacob Tricarico added four kills and three blocks while Philip Ozari added five kills. Setter Colin Carson had 26 assists and five digs.

Source: Mark Janzen, Trinity Western Assistant Sports Information Director

LANGLEY, British Columbia – The No. 2 Trinity Western men’s volleyball team will play for the Canada West gold medal for the third straight year as the Spartans beat No. 10 Brandon 3-1 (25-17, 25-21, 22-25, 25-19) in the conference semifinals Friday at the Langley Events Centre. With the win, the Spartans, as one of the top two teams in Canada West, also earn a berth in the CIS national championship tournament for the fourth consecutive season.

The Spartans will play No. 3 Alberta, who beat No. 6 Thompson Rivers in the other semifinal, for the conference championship Saturday at 7 p.m. at the LEC.

Led by Nick Del Bianco (Surrey, B.C.), who had 22 kills, the Spartans were impressive in three of the four sets and, hitting .346 or better in the first second and fourth sets, TWU earned a hard-fought win. With 14 blocks to Brandon’s 5.5, the Spartans made up for their 19 serving errors that accompanied just six aces. Brandon had three aces and five errors.

“We played great in the first two sets,” said Spartans coach Ben Josephson. “We played to our preparation. In the third set, we got caught up in results and we got caught up in winning the set and qualifying for nationals as opposed to executing your techniques and doing your job. That combined with our opponents being better in the third set created that loss. In the fourth set, we played great except for serving.

“That was our first playoff game and our first experience with do-or-die and we handled it well for the most part.”

With TWU up 19-17 late in the fourth set, the Spartans Derek Thiessen (Coquitlam, B.C.) gave the home side its first three-point edge of the set. Trinity Western tallied the next two points to take a 22-17 lead and that all but sealed the set and the match.

After finishing the regular season atop the Canada West standings for the second time in three years, the Spartans now have a chance to duplicate that 2011-12 effort when TWU won the conference title on home court. That year, the Spartans also went on to win the CIS gold medal.

Brandon will play TRU for the bronze medal Saturday at 5 p.m. at the LEC.

After Del Bianco’s effort, it was Thiessen leading the Spartans with 13 kills and six blocks while Lucas Van Berkel had 10 kills while hitting .769 and a match-high eight blocks. Adam Schriemer (Winnipeg) had a match-high 42 assists while Tyler Koslowsky (Abbotsford, B.C.) had a team-high 11 digs.

The Bobcats Sebastien Steigmeier had a team-high 20 kills and 15 digs while Sam Tuivai had 13 kills and two aces. Setter David Stasica had a team-high 34 assists.

With a boisterous crowd on their side, the Spartans opened a quick 7-3 lead in the first set. But Brandon responded with a 6-0 run that gave the Bobcats a 9-7 lead. However, a 5-1 TWU run gave the Spartans a 12-10 lead and an advantage the home side would possess the rest of the way.

Building their lead as the set progressed, TWU ran away with it down the stretch. A Del Bianco kill gave TWU its first crack at set point and the Spartans took the set 25-17 after a Bobcats attack error.

The third set was all Bobcats early as they took a 6-1 lead and remained up by five at 14-9. But a kill from Thiessen seemed to spark the Spartans and after a Branden Schmidt (De Winton, Alta.) block, TWU got within one point at 16-15 before eventually tying it at 18-18. Then a Van Berkel block gave the Spartans the lead at 21-20 and TWU didn’t let up. The Spartans pushed that edge to 23-20 and then 24-21, before a Brandon attack error gave TWU the set 25-21.

The Spartans started the third set just like the first, building a 7-3 lead. But again, similar to the first set, Brandon responded big time, running off 10 straight points as Steigmeier led a remarkable streak that gave the Bobcats a 13-7 lead. Then, after a Tuivai ace, Brandon went up 20-12 and looked in control. But, TWU came all the way back and, thanks numerous stuff blocks, tied the set 21-21. However, just as it seemed like all the momentum was on the Spartans side, Brandon took advantage of a TWU serving error to spark a 4-1 run to capture the set.

After hitting .346 and .419 in the first two sets respectively, TWU hit .114 in the third set. Countering that was Brandon hitting .269 in the third set after hitting .032 and .114 over the first two sets.

The fourth set proved to be a slugfest as neither team was able to take anything more than a two-point lead for most of the set. With TWU up 19-17, the Spartans finally earned a three-point lead after Thiessen found an open pocket on the Bobcats side. Trinity Western pushed that lead to five points after a Van Berkel kill and then it seemed just a matter of time before the Spartans would end it. Despite committing eight serving errors in the set, TWU scored the final two points to win 25-19 and take the match.

Now TWU not only has a chance at a Canada West title but will get the chance return to the CIS championship tournament in search of redemption after losing to in the quarter-finals last year against Western.

“The poker analogy comes to mind,” Josephson said. “All you need is a chip and a chair and you can win the tournament. Now we have a chair at the table and a chip on our shoulder because we’re still upset about last year’s quarter-final. We’re pretty excited about the chance to go and redeem ourselves.”

Brandon coach Grant Wilson said: “The better team won. End of story. I thought they served pretty tough and put us under pressure and for whatever reason we didn’t have everyone on the same page. We fought the ball and in situations that we have typically been able to swing our way out of, we just couldn’t tonight. Credit to them for putting us under the pressure they did.”

Game Notes: The Spartans have won three Canada West gold medals, winning in 2007 (beating UBC) and 2012 (beating Manitoba).