CIS women's volleyball Saturday roundup: Alberta grabs Canada West gold, Spartans take final CIS championship spot with bronze

OTTAWA – The Queen's Gaels and Toronto Varsity Blues went the full distance in a back-and-forth affair on Saturday afternoon that saw the Gaels grab the win 3-2 in the OUA semifinal match. The set scores finished 25-22, 26-24, 25-27, 24-26, 15-10.

The Gaels posted strong numbers across the board in the match with three players recording double-digit kills led by Natalie Gray of Oshawa, Ont. who had a game high 28.

Anna Pedjase of Waterloo Ont. was a key to setting up the offense as she posted 60 assists, while defensively Queen's had six contributors with double-digit digs including Kingston, Ont. native Shannon Walsh who led the way with 22.

Toronto stayed toe-to-toe with the Gaels all afternoon despite the early two sets to none deficit. They were led by Charlotte Sider of Ottawa who had 21 kills and nine digs.

After going up two sets to none the Blue battled back to force a fifth and final set with Queen's. With the Gaels and Blues tied at  9-9 in the final frame, Queen's strung together a three point run which included two kills from Gray to take the lead 12-9. After a Toronto point the Gaels kept the momentum rolling another three point run to close out the match.

Queen's will now move on to the OUA championship where they will take on the Ottawa Gee-Gees tomorrow at 3pm.

Source: Queen's Sports Info

OTTAWA - The Gee-Gees took advantage of the home crowd energy to clinch their spot in the OUA final tomorrow, sweeping the RMC Paladins in three straight sets. The Garnet and Grey will now face the Queen’s Gaels in the gold medal match-up, after the Gaels defeated the Varsity Blues 3-2 earlier today in semi-final action.
 
After the game, Gee-Gees head coach Lionel Woods was very pleased with his team’s performance, especially with the great teamwork between second year hitter Karina Krueger Schwanke (Blumenau, Brazil) and third-year setter Christina Grail (London, Ont.). “It’s fun to watch them play but right now we’re just happy to be in the gold and it’s going to be a heck of a match,” noted Woods.
 
The Gee-Gees’ powerful attacks kept the Paladins on their toes, and they struggled tocontrol the placement of their digs. The Gee-Gees were dominant in attacks on net, amassing a total of 47 kills against RMC’s 15.
 
The Garnet and Grey saw a slow start in the first set, falling to an early 5-1 deficit, until Krueger Schwanke helped the Gee-Gees tie the score at 5-5 and take an 8-6 lead. After that, the Gee-Gees did not look back, and Krueger Schwanke went on to pick up two aces to help the University of Ottawa win the first set 25-14.
 
The second set saw a great performance by Christina Grail who, thanks to precise passing  and two surprise dumps on the opponent’s court, helped the Gee-Gees to a 25-18 victory.
 
In the third set, the Paladins lost the service of one of their best players, Melissa McCoy, who suffered an ankle injury.  They still managed to give the Gee-Gees some trouble, but the Garnet and Grey would finally go on to take the last set with a score of 25-17 thanks to another ace by Krueger Schwanke.
 
The Gee-Gees must now shift their focus to their next opponent, the Queen’s Gaels, against whom they split their regular season match-ups. “We have to play our best,” explained Woods with regards to tomorrow’s match-up. “Each individual has to play well. Queen’s has a lot of excitement, passion and enjoyment of the game, and they are fun to play because of that. So we just have to match that as a group.  I think both teams have equal talent, equal individuals that can win the game, so I think it’s going to come down to the best team. ”
 
Norah Collins of RMC was named player of the game for the Paladins, while Karina Krueger Schwanke received the honour for the Gee-Gees.

Source: Ottawa Sports Info

LANGLEY, British Columbia – In a do or die match, the No. 3 ranked Trinity Western women’s volleyball team earned a spot in the CIS national championship by capturing the Canada West bronze medal game with a 3-0 (25-23, 25-18, 30-28) win over Winnipeg, who was also No. 3 in the most recent rankings, Saturday at the War Memorial Gym.

While the Spartans got the win, they didn’t make it easy on themselves as they had to eke out wins in both the first and third sets after possessing four-point leads at match point on both occasions. But in the end, Trinity Western, who took home the CIS bronze medal at last year’s national championship, got the win it needed and will now travel to Hamilton, Ont. for this year’s national tournament Mar. 8-10.

Trinity Western was led by Royal Richardson, who had 10 kills and five digs, Alicia Perrin, who had 11 blocks and four kills, and Kelci French, who had eight kills, eight digs and four blocks. Setter Chelsea Hudson had 26 assists and had six block assists.

The Wesmen was led by Lauren Sears who had eight kills, four aces and six blocks, Carleen Kruschel, who had eight kills and five digs, and Ozana Nikolic, who had six kills, 13 digs and four blocks.

The Spartans looked poised to cruise to an easy win in the third set, up 24-20 with all the momentum on their side and a CIS berth just a point away. But the Wesmen proved to have plenty of fight left, rallying for five straight points, led by fifth-year middle Lauren Sears.

After Nikolic hammered a kill to make it 24-21, Sears smacked a kill of her own and then teamed up for a block with Nikolic to bring the Wesmen within one. Ellina Domnidou added a kill to tie the game up, and Sears then registered her eighth kill of the night to give the Wesmen a chance at game point.

But the Spartans Amy Leschied came up with a kill and then an ace to put Trinity Western back up one, and after the teams traded points a few times, Trinity Western’s Richardson finally put one down for the Spartans on their seventh chance at match point to send them through to the CIS tournament.

The Spartans kept the Wesmen offence out of sync all night with 16 blocks in the match. Alicia Perrin had a dominant performance in the middle, getting in on 11 of those blocks, including one solo.

"I thought our blocking was what did it for us this game. We passed well and did okay offensively, but Alicia did a fantastic job at the net," said Trinity Western head coach Ryan Hofer. "Our wing blockers did a good job of containing it, and we picked up the ball and looked in transition for the kill."

The Wesmen were the least experienced team at the Final Four, with several first or second year players taking on key roles for the team. That inexperience seemed to show up in crucial moments this weekend, as they were agonizingly close to victory against Alberta yesterday with late leads in four of the five sets, and again came up short in some tight sets against the Spartans.

"On this team we have no players with Final Four experience and so even though you try to make it just another match, there's really a lot of emotion attached to the fact that there's a berth to nationals on line and it becomes a bigger deal," said Diane Scott. "Yesterday we had opportunities to finish off the match and qualify but we just got a little tight, and then at the end today we had some moments but just made a few too many unforced errors."

The Spartans now have their sights set on the CIS tournament, but Hofer said they won't forget their rather lopsided loss to UBC in the semifinals last night either.

"It's a high pressure weekend and we have to learn to deal with that pressure. UBC is a great team and they played us outstanding, and we played okay. You're not going to win a game like that. Now it's about learning from what happened this weekend and taking that forward into an even bigger tournament."

The Spartans took home the bronze at last year's CIS tournament. They will join UBC and Alberta in search of more CIS glory for the Canada West conference from March 2-4 in Hamilton, Ontario.

In the first set the Spartans possessed a lead throughout much of the frame and, after staking themselves to a 24-18 lead, had a chance to serve for the set. But Winnipeg battled back. They Wesmen scored five straight points to make it a 24-23 contest. After Trinity Western called a timeout, the Spartans Leschied earned the set’s next point with a kill to give the Spartans a 25-23 win.

The second set was largely the same for Trinity Western as they broke away from Winnipeg early and built a sizable lead in the middle stages. This time however with a chance at set point at 24-16, the Spartans closed it out quickly, winning 25-18.

That set up what turned into a wild third set that saw Trinity Western hit -.020 and Winnipeg hit .020. Like the first two sets the Spartans took an early lead but more akin to the first set, they let the Wesmen back in it late before closing out the win at 30-28.

Game Notes: TWU had 16 blocks to Winnipeg’s 12…TWU hit .091 while Winnipeg hit -.017…Winnipeg had six digs to TWU’s four.

Source: Trinity Western Sports Info

VANCOUVER - It took them 10 hard-fought sets, but the Alberta Pandas emerged from the Canada West Final Four as conference champions on Saturday, downing the host UBC Thunderbirds in the gold medal match 3-2 (18-25, 25-21, 25-22, 20-25, 15-13) at War Memorial Gym.

The T-Birds held an 8-5 lead at the technical timeout in the fifth set, but the break seemed to energize the Pandas, who had to be feeling the effects of playing 10 sets against elite competition in the past two days. They came out of the timeout on fire, rattling off a 5-0 run that included four straight blocks to take the lead.

UBC managed to pull even at 11, but another block gave the lead back to Alberta, and then Jaki Ellis put down her eighth ace of the night to make it 13-11. The 'Birds battled back to within a point, down 14-13, but Alena Omelchenko managed to force the golden kill through the T-Bird block on match point.

"We found out that good things happen if you just don't stop playing," said Alberta head coach Laurie Eisler. "It was about just staying in the battle and giving ourselves a chance, and I'm really proud of the team for their resilience and that stick with it quality under pressure which we will carry forward to nationals."

UBC and bronze medalists Trinity Western will also go to nationals with Alberta.

"Full marks to Alberta. Two games in a row they came to play and battled back when they had to," said UBC coach Doug Reimer. "They got us out of rhythm a couple times and as a group they played really well. But having said that I was really impressed with our battle and fight. We didn't come out on top of it though and have to make a couple adjustments for next week."

Much of the game was decided at the service line, as the teams combined for 27 aces in the match.

Ellis led all players with eight aces on the night. Alberta did have 20 service errors to go with their 14 aces, but Eisler said that aggressiveness at the line was key to the Pandas win.

"UBC has so much offensive talent that if you don't get them out of system it's really hard to match up against them so we knew we had to be aggressive with our serve, and I think Jaki really set the tone for the team."

Reimer agreed that the Pandas' strategy at the service line paid off on Saturday.

"They ended up making a lot of errors but they earned a lot too and it turned their way in the second set. We weren't quite prepared for that, and that's probably the adjustment we have to make - being able to handle being out of system a little better."

The T-Birds had 13 aces to nine service errors, led by Shanice Marcelle who had seven aces and just a single error. She had a great all-around performance with nine kills, 15 digs and four blocks as well.

"I think she's enjoying playing hard and competing hard, and it was fun to watch," Reimer said of his former CIS MVP.

The current conference MVP, Kyla Richey, had a more difficult night. She led the 'Birds with 10 kills but the Pandas were keying in on her all night, and she wound up with a negative hitting percentage for the match. She still made big contributions to the 'Birds defensively and wound up with three blocks and 11 digs.

Omelchenko led all players with 13 kills. Ellis had eight to go with her 27 assists, and Caitlin Buckell also had eight on .667 hitting.

Alberta's win marks an end to UBC's three-year run as Canada West champions. It's Alberta's first Canada West gold medal finish since 2008.

The T-Birds still have their four-year streak as national champions to worry about though, and they will be looking to make it five in a row next week at McMaster University. Alberta, UBC and Trinity Western will all be in Hamilton, Ontario from March 2 to 4 in search of CIS gold.

Source: UBC Sports Info