CIS men's volleyball Saturday roundup: Tigers take first match of AUS championship series

Source: Winnipeg Sports Info

The No. 3 ranked Trinity Western University Spartans defeated the No. 6 ranked University of Winnipeg Wesmen in a classic 3-1 (26-24, 30-28, 15-25, 30-28) Canada West regular season battle Saturday afternoon in Winnipeg.

Trinity Western with the win improves their regular season ending record to 20-4. Winnipeg with the loss ends regular season play sporting a 13-11 record.

Fifth year outside hitter Nicholas Del Bianco led the Spartans with a match high 17 kills and four service aces. Third year outside Ryan Sclater finished with 13 kills. Blake Scheerhoorn led the team in digs with 11 while 6-10 middle Daniel Grant had seven blocks. Winnipeg native Adam Schriemer had 34 assists.

Winnipeg was led by second year outside hitter David Bommersbach's 16 kills. Fifth year outside Tom Douglas-Powell and fourth year middle Brendan Black each had 14 kills. Casey Schouten led the team in digs with 13. Fifth year middle Matthew Dueck was in on a match high nine blocks.

In the early stages of the opening set got the sense that both teams were ready for a battle. Neither teams held more than a two point lead (7-5 Spartans) in the early part of the opening set. The Spartans got back to back kills by Ryan Sclater to put them ahead 16-14 at the technical timeout. The teams waged their battle late in the set with the Spartans staring at set point with a 24-22 lead. Winnipeg got a kill by Douglas-Powell on the next play and took advantage of a Spartan attacking error to tie the score at 24-24. A kill by Del Bianco followed by a Wesmen attacking error gave the Spartans the opening set by a scopre of 26-24.

Winnipeg came out firing ion the second set. The Wesmen opened up an early 8-3 lead and forced the Spartans to take a timeout. The timeout seemed to work as Trinity Western outscored the Wesmen 13-6 to take a 16-14 lead at the technical timeout. Once again the teams battled to extra points all the way to 28-28. The Spartans closed out the set taking advantage of a Winnipeg service error followed by a service ace by Del Bianco to win the set 30-28 and take a 2-0 lead in the match.

In the third set it was all Winnipeg from the start. The Wesmen needing a set win to stay in the match, raced out to a 16-9 lead at the technical timeout. Winnipeg's power hitters took turns scoring points down the stretch as Winnipeg got back into the match winning the third set by a score of 25-15.

The fourth set was once again a battle. A kill by Del Bianco gave the Spartans a slim 16-15 lead at the technical timeout. Trinity Western late in the set had match point staring right at them but a kill by David Bommersbach cut the lead to 24-23 and Winnipeg forced extra points winning the next play to tie the score at 24-24. The teams exchanged points to 28-28 until two consecutive Wesmen attacking errors gave the Spartans the advantage in the fourth set by a score of 30-28.

Both teams have qualified for post season play. The final placings will be decided by the results of other Canada West matches taking place.

Note: Senior Wesmen players Tom-Douglas-Powell and Matt Dueck were honoured in a special pre-match ceremony. Trinity Western's fifth year players Nicholas Del Bianco and Daniel Grant were also acknowledged.

Source: Dalhousie Sports Info

Halifax, N.S. - It took just three sets for the Tigers to take a 1-0 lead over the UNB Varsity Reds in the 2015 Subway AUS Men's Volleyball Championship series at Dalplex.

The Tigers got off to an 8-2 lead in the first set and managed to maintain that lead to win the first set 25-22, depsite constant pressure from the Varsity Reds who were plaqued with service errors early on.

It was UNB who got on the board first in the second set until the Tigers found a groove, thanks to steady serving from fourth-year middle blocker Connor Maessen (Dartmouth, N.S.) and AUS all-star Jonathan Macdonald (Halifax, N.S.) to get to the technical time out ahead 16-13.

Tied at 20 in the second, the Varsity Reds and Tigers traded points until Dal managed two points in a row to take the second set 26-24.

The Varsity Reds had a 5-0 lead early in the third forcing AUS coach of the year, Dan Ota, to take a time out. UNB continued to lead thanks to unforced errors by the Tigers and great performances from third-year outside hitter Eivind Andersen (Sardnes, Norway) and AUS all-star Craig Toonders (Navan, O.N.).

The Tigers would claw their way back to take over the lead 21-17 thanks to UNB unforced errors and stellar attacks by AUS MVP Bryan Duquette (St. Thomas, O.N.) and fourth-year outside hitter Alex Dempsey (Halifax, N.S.). They never looked back, taking the third and final set 25-17, claiming a 1-0 lead in the Subway AUS Championship series.

UNB's Subway Player of the Game was Toonders, who had 10.0 points that inlcuded four kills and six stuff blocks. Andersen had 13 kills, eight digs and two stuff blocks in the match.

Dempsey recorded nine kills, three digs, a block and an ace, earning him Subway Player of the Game honours for the Tigers. Duquette had 10 kills and eight digs, while AUS Libero of the Year, Adam Sandeson had a game-high 13 digs.

The second match of the 2015 Subway AUS Men's Volleyball Championship takes place Saturday, February 14 at 2:00 p.m. at UNB.

Source: Alberta Sports Info

EDMONTON - Third-year setter Brett Walsh continued his banner year with the No.2 University of Alberta Golden Bears, tying a career-high in assists and netting match point in a five-set comeback win (22-25, 25-19, 20-25, 25-14, 15-8), a victory over the Mount Royal University Cougars that clinched the regular season conference title for Alberta, Saturday night at Saville Community Sports Centre.

 The Calgary native recorded 57 assists, matching his output from November 14, 2014 at UBC, also recording a team-high 10 digs to go with one momentous kill and his solo, match-winning ace. Walsh is also the first-ever men's volleyball player to record more than 1,000 assists in a single season, finishing his 2014-15 campaign with 1,031. Fourth-year left side Ryley Barnes spun a game-high 19 kills for Alberta while fourth-year middle John Goranson and third-year left side Ryan Nickifor added 15 kills apiece.

 Rookie outside hitter Tyler Schmidt had a team-high 18 kills for Mount Royal, fourth-year outside hitter Jordan Parkin chipping in a dozen kills while third-year setter Samuel Brisbane from Melbourne, Australia put up team highs with 45 assists and 12 digs.

 With the win, the Bears claim first place in Canada West with a 21-3 record while the Cougars drop to 11-13, out of playoff contention. Alberta's position earns them a "bye" to the Canada West Final Four as well as hosting duties for the event on the February 20-22 weekend.

 Mount Royal made victory anything but easy on Saturday evening, despite the Bears getting the first big heap of momentum off a monster block by Goranson and Nickifor early in the opening set, exciting the spectators in attendance.

 Yet a 7-1 run by the visitors put them up by a 12-9 score before the Bears fought back with a couple of Alex McMullin aces to knot things up at 12-12.

 Undeterred, fourth-year Michael Wickstrom started a quick 4-1 run for the Cougars, this time the team holding on to the lead all the way to the end of the back-and-forth set before Schmidt ended things with a kill too powerful for the Alberta block.

 The Bears broke open a 5-5 score in the second set with a quick three-point run before Mount Royal stole the momentum on a long rally, only to lose it with two straight snipes by Alberta, using their small lead to inch their way to a 1-1 tie, Goranson throwing down another laser kill for the match point, straight down at the net.

 A huge momentum swing propelled the Cougars to an 11-6 start in the third set, however, the Bears reducing the deficit to as little as three before the visitors pushed back, capitalizing on service errors as well as attack errors by the home team, including match point when Barnes got blocked by the duo of Parkin and third-year middle Josh Kirkham.

 Down 2-1 in the set score, Alberta's offence found an even higher gear, attacking at a blistering 54.5% in the fourth set with Goranson, Nickifor, and Barnes combining for 15 kills of the team's 19.

 Choosing quality over quantity, Walsh made his solo kill a crowd-pleaser, leaping high up into the stratosphere before commanding the ball to the ground on the Cougar side of the net, only making the score 10-4 at the time, but putting all the momentum squarely behind the defending CIS champions, leading to a fifth and final set.

 Getting off to a 3-0 start, the Bears let up to allow the road team back into the game, even though Alberta remained ahead on its blocking skills, the front row combining to make it 9-6 before fourth-year right side Kevin Proudfoot went solo to make it 11-8 for the Bears.

 The elation of the hometown crowd on Proudfoot's effort shook the visitors just enough to go long on two straight attacks before Walsh finished his storied season, driving an ace towards Parkin, who couldn't steer the ball back into play, giving the Bears a ticket to the Final Four.

 While the Cougars return home, the Bears will await their opponents in the Canada West Final Four after the results of next weekend's conference quarter-finals.

Source: Saskatchewan Sports Info

With a 3-2 (26-24, 25-27, 15-25, 25-20, 19-17) win over the No. 8 ranked University of Saskatchewan Huskies Saturday night at the PAC in Saskatoon, the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack advance to the Canada West postseason.

Entering the weekend, both the Huskies and WolfPack needed wins to secure one of seven spots in the playoffs. With a Thompson Rivers 3-0 (30-28, 27-25, 28-26) a night earlier, the winner of Saturday's affair secured the final spot.

The WolfPack finish with a 13-11 record and will face the Manitoba Bisons  in a Canada West best-of-three quarter-final beginning next weekend.  Despite missing the playoffs for the first time in two seasons, Saskatchewan will advance to the CIS Championship as host February 26-28 at the PAC.

The series was evenly matched with five of the eight sets played in the two matches needing extra points to determine a winner including the fifth and deciding set on Saturday.

Tying 10 times in the fifth-set, the Huskies held off the WolfPack at match point four times before a Brad Gunter attack sailed off Huskie blockers and a block by Gunter and Daniel Eikeland Rod sealed the 19-17 win.

Reigning CIS Player of the Year Brad Gunter led the WolfPack in the victory recording a match-high 21 kills, while fifth-year Casey Knight added another 10. Matt Krueger led the team with 14 digs.

Saskatchewan spread the attack around with four Huskies tallying 10 or more kills. Fifth-year Matthew Busse led the group with 17, followed by Jordan Nowakowski with 11. Paul Thomson added another 11, while Tyler Epp recorded 10. Thomson and libero Etienne Hagenbuch each tallied eight digs.

Canada West men's volleyball quarter-finals begin February 13.

Source: Jacqueline MacDiarmid, UBC Sports Information Assistant

VANCOUVER — The UBC Thunderbirds beat the University of Regina Cougars in straight sets, completing a perfect weekend for the team. This was the last match of Canada West men's volleyball regular season play for both squads, and the win boosted UBC to a record of 13-11, while Regina fell to 2-22. Set scores were 25-21, 25-15 and 25-18.

UBC's Ben Chow and Regina's Noah Mills led their respective teams with 11 kills.

The two teams were evenly matched throughout most of the first set. Kills by Miller provided the bookends on a 6-2 run that gave the Cougars a 12-11 lead but the T-Birds replied with four straight points to re-take the lead, which held until the set's conclusion.
 
The Thunderbirds sailed through the second, beating their guests handily by 10 points. They jumped out to an early 8-3 advantage, setting the tone for the rest of the set. An 8-2 surge in the middle of the set pushed the score to 17-7. Fifth-year senior Quentin Schmidt capped off the set with a kill, one of seven on the night for the Calgary native.
 
However, in the third, Regina jumped out to a 12-8 lead but the hosts regained the momentum by claiming 11 of the next 13 points.

"This game was all about defence," says UBC head coach Richard Schick. "Our blocking really came through for us this evening."

Team blocks were 9.5-4.5 in favour of Schick's team. Also on defence, Chow and fifth-year senior libero Ian Perry contributed eight digs each. Abbotsford, B.C., native Perry finshed the season with 187 digs, bringing his regular season career total to 941, the second-most in Canada West history. He trails only former T-Bird star Blair Bann, who had 1,018.

Regina's Michael Corrigan recorded a team-high 17 assists and six digs.

 UBC clinched a Canada West playoff spot with last night's triumph but their final position in the league standings is to be determined. The T-Birds can finish anywhere from fourth to sixth, depending on Sunday's match between Manitoba and MacEwan in Edmonton. Four teams, UBC, Winnipeg, Manitoba and Thompson Rivers, could finish with identical 13-11 records.

 Should Manitoba win on Sunday, they will host the Thunderbirds in Winnipeg next weekend for the first round of the playoffs. UBC will host Winnipeg if MacEwan pulls off the upset on Sunday.

When asked what the key ingredient for playoff success will be, Schick maintained that attitude will count for a lot in the post-season play.
 
"We cannot be apprehensive out there, we've got to be aggressive," says Schick. "When the team has felt apprehensive rather than confident, that's when we've gotten into trouble this year."
 
Saturday's game marks the last regular season appearances for graduating players Perry, Schmidt, and Chris Howe (Salt Spring Island, B.C.), who finished his last Canada West regular season game with four kills and four block assists.