Photo credit David Moll
CALGARY (CIS) – A rematch of the OUA championship game and last year’s all-Ontario national semi-final will decide a berth in the national championship game after the McMaster Marauders got past the hometown Calgary Dinos in the final match of Day 1 of the CIS men’s volleyball championship, 3-1 (24-26, 25-21, 25-17, 25-22).
The Marauders will meet the Western Mustangs in the late semi-final Friday night following Western’s stirring five-set upset win over the Trinity Western Spartans earlier Thursday. The match-up guarantees an OUA representative in the national championship game Saturday night in the University of Calgary’s Jack Simpson Gym as Ontario continues to chase that elusive CIS men’s volleyball championship. Saturday’s final will mark just the second time since 1991 that an OUA team will compete for the Tantramar Trophy, which has only been hoisted by a team from the province once: Ottawa, in 1967.
Led by All-Canadian and game MVP Jori Mantha and fellow outside hitter Stephen Maar, the Marauders hit at an impressive clip from the left side, causing no end of problems for the Calgary defence. Mantha picked up 21 big kills on the night while Maar added 17, and the two combined for just seven errors.
"For us it was just being about to find a rhythm with our serving,” said Mantha. “We missed a lot of serves early, but we were finally able to pick that up and get a lot of rhythm. Then we were able to make some plays and play defence around the bad pass and high ball out.
“I think our serving game is one of the key factors in our victory tonight, just as much as being able to grind it out in front of the great crowd that Calgary had tonight. We like to play in loud gyms whether it’s for us or for other teams so it was good for us to stick together.”
The Dinos came out firing in the opening set, fuelled by the boisterous home crowd, and took a 26-24 win in the opener. McMaster found its groove in the second, however, and hit 47 per cent in the frame and 43 per cent in the third, taking both by 25-21 and 25-17 scores, respectively.
Calgary showed life early in the fourth set and jumped out to a 5-1 lead, but a 9-2 run by the Marauders put a stop to that momentum and McMaster played from ahead the rest of the way, taking it 25-22.
Dany Demyanenko and Jayson McCarthy picked up 10 kills each for McMaster, while Andrew Campion Smith had a match-high 15 digs while Tyson Alexander was in on five of the Marauders’ eight blocks on the night. The visitors hit better than 33 per cent in the match and out-killed the Dinos by a 62-44 margin.
Fifth-year Australian national teamer Greg Mann paced the Calgary offence with his 11 kills and led them defensively as well with 10 digs. Connor Frehlich, the Dinos’ player of the match, put down a further nine kills, with Sean Tuff contributing seven.
“I’m really proud of this group,” said Dinos head coach Rod Durrant. “They really left it out there today, they gave it all they had. We played really well in the first set, but McMaster is the second-ranked team and they showed why tonight. Their left sides did a really good job of passing, and when they stay in system they’re two tough guys to stop. We did everything we could. Like I said, I’m proud of this group, they’ve come a long way in the last two years, and they’ll go a long ways in the real world.”
The Dinos will face the Trinity Western Spartans in an all-Canada West consolation semi-final Friday afternoon, with first serve at 2:30 p.m.
Boxscore: http://english.cis-sic.ca/championships/mvball/2014/championship
McMaster
Kills: Jori Mantha (21), Stephen Maar (17)
Points: Jori Mantha (22.5), Stephen Maar (19)
Blocks: Tyson Alexander (5), Dany Demyanenko, Jori Mantha (3)
Digs: Andrew Campion Smith (15), Pawel Jedrzejewski (7)
Service aces: Stephen Maar (2), Jayson McCarthy (1)
Player of the match: Jori Mantha
Calgary
Kills: Greg Mann (11), Connor Frehlich (9)
Points: Greg Mann (12.5), Connor Frehlich (11)
Blocks: Jackson Maris, Sean Tuff, Connor Frehlich, Ivan Kartev
(3)
Digs: Greg Mann (10), Darcee Froese (9)
Service aces: Ivan Kartev (2), Jackson Maris, Greg Mann (1)
Player of the match: Connor Frehlich
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: Dalhousie vs. Montreal (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
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 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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