CIS men's volleyball Saturday roundup: Bisons hand No. 1 Golden Bears first loss of the season

Source: Shawn MacDonald, Queen's Sports Info

KINGSTON, Ont. - The Queen's Gaels (10-5) had no trouble getting past the York Lions (8-8) on Saturday afternoon as the Gaels cruised to a 3-0 win. Set scores finished 27-25, 25-20 and 25-20.

The first set saw the two teams keeping the score close until Queen's was able to pull ahead 16-12 at the technical timeout.Stephen Holmes (Ancaster, Ont.) gave the Gaels the momentum with one of his seven kills on the afternoon. The Lions managed to claw back into the game and even the score at 25-25. Queen's outside hitters Mike Tomlinson (Stratford, Ont.) and Philippe Goyer (Ottawa, Ont.) provided the power needed to close out the set with back-to-back kills for a 27-25 win.

In the second frame, York got off to a quick start jumping ahead 5-2 thanks to two kills from Felipe Human-Paredes (Toronto) who finished with eight on the day. Queen's came right back at the Lions taking eight of the next 10 points to jump ahead 10-7. The Gaels stayed in front the rest of the way and Tomlinson and Goyer once again closed the set with back-to-back kills, 25-20.

The York Lions stayed close with the Gaels in the third set with help from Gregory Ivan (Toronto) getting a few kills from the middle. Queen's managed to keep the Lions at bay, never trailing by more than one point in the set. The Gaels stayed the course and closed out the set 25-20 for a 3-0 straight set win.

Queen's will be back in action on Sunday at 2 p.m. at the ARC as they host the No. 2 McMaster Marauders.

Source: Western Sports Info

LONDON, Ont. – Following their four set victory over the Ryerson Rams on Friday night the Western Mustangs men’s volleyball team returned to home court for the final time in the regular season on Saturday, taking down the Toronto Varsity Blues in straight sets.
 
As is tradition for the final regular season home game, Saturday night’s match was Senior Night for the team as they honoured their senior players prior to the game. This year the Mustangs celebrated the careers of seven Mustangs: Sean McKay, Jack Creaghan, Luke Sim, Craig Dixon, Andre Begin, Phil James, and Alan Screaton.
 
The seniors certainly made the most of their final regular season game in front of the purple and white faithful, winning all three sets by at least six points.
 
Garret May led the Mustangs with 17 points and 16 kills. James was second on the Mustangs score sheet with 10.5 points while Sim added seven kills, good for second on the team. Toronto was led by Jake Dyssellhof, who racked up 11 points and 11 kills while Michael Denton also had a strong game adding 25 assists.
 
Western now enters the final week of regular season play in third place with a 12-4 record. The Mustangs sit only four points behind the Waterloo Warriors, meaing their matchup next Saturday could have major implications on the OUA playoff picture.
 
Before their showdown with the Warriors the Mustangs will get their final pair of regular season games underway on Friday night when they travel to Guelph to face the Gryphons. Game time is set for 8:00 p.m.

Source: Sheldon Appelle, Winnipeg Sports Info

WINNIPEG - The University of Winnipeg Wesmen completed a weekend sweep over the UBC Okanagan Heat with a 3-0 (25-21, 25-19, 25-22) straight sets victory Saturday night at the Duckworth Centre in Winnipeg.

The Wesmen, entered the weekend as the No. nine ranked team in the country defeated the Heat in three straight sets Friday evening.

Winnipeg pushes their record to 10-10 while the Heat fall to 2-18 in the Canada West regular season standings.

First year opposite Casey Schouten led Winnipeg with 13 kills. Schouten had no errors in 19 attempts for a hitting percentage of .684. Tom Douglas Powell was next with seven kills. Fourth year outside Matt Stubler led the Wesmen with eight digs. Brendan Black was a force at the net finishing with six total blocks.

Jon Russo led the Heat with 12 kills followed by Greg Niemantsverdriet with 10. Leo Schober led the Heat with three blocks.

The hometown Wesmen took a 16-14 lead into the technical timeout of the opening set. The Wesmen extended their lead to 21-17 when the Heat made things interesting. UBC Okanagan reeled off four straight points to tie the score at 21-21. Winnipeg recovered scoring four straight points to take the first set 25-21.

In the second set Winnipeg gained the advantage holding a 16-12 lead at the set break. The Heat stayed with the Wesmen and closed the gap to 21-19 later in the set. Jordon Rose came off the bench for Winnipeg and right away had a kill and his strong serving, including a service ace at set point gave the Wesmen the second set by a score of 25-19.

Set number three was a carbon copy of the first two. Winnipeg took a 16-11 lead into the break. The determined Heat squad used two runs down the stretch to close the Wesmen lead to 23-22. Schouten put the match away with back-to-back kills to close out the set at 25-23.

Winnipeg will wrap up their regular season schedule next Friday and Saturday at Thompson Rivers. The Heat will host the Brandon Bobcats.

Source: Matt Packwood, Brandon Sports Info

BRANDON – The Brandon Bobcats were looking to duplicate Friday’s performance on Saturday, but the UBC Thunderbirds had a different story in mind. The Bobcats extended the match to five sets Friday which enabled them to come away with a win, but the T-Birds put a stop to Brandon’s late surge Saturday, coming away with a 3-1 (25-19, 22-25, 25-22, 27-25) win.

The Bobcats fought off elimination once in the fourth set, but UBC put it away thanks two straight blocks to end the match, earning the weekend series split.

The T-Birds finished in double-digit kills, led by Jarrid Ireland’s 15 kills, while Ben Chow picked up 13 and David Zeyha added 11 kills. Chris Howe had six blocks including three stuff blocks.

Second-year left-side Sam Tuivai extended his league-lead in kills by putting up 26 for the Bobcats, while fellow New Zealander Roy Ching finished one dig shy of a double-double (14 kills, nine digs).  Third-year middle Brendan White finished with seven blocks. Playing in his final regular season match at home, Garrett Popplestone had a match-high 47 assists to go along with five blocks.

The win improves UBC’s record to 13-7 and greatly improves the T-Birds chances of hosting a first-round playoff series. The Bobcats fall to 11-9 on the season.

Up next for Brandon is a weekend series with the UBCO Heat to close out the 2012-13 Canada West regular season, while UBC will welcome the Mount Royal Cougars in what will be the T-Birds final regular season competition as well.

Source: Sara Shyiak, Manitoba Sports Info

WINNIPEG - #1 Alberta Golden Bears lost for the first time all season against the #4 Manitoba men’s volleyball team. They played a heated match that ended at 3-1 (25-15, 25-22, 26-28, 25-17) for Manitoba at the Investors Group Athletic Centre. Alberta has lost 12 sets all season, four of which the Bisons are responsible for. 

Manitoba took the court with an incredible fire, blocking well, as usual, for 17 total block attacks in the match. There were solid spikes all around for Manitoba as they finished with 60 total kills. Their energy was high all game but especially in the fourth. To end the game, setter Chris Komishon put up the ball and co-captain Chris Voth jumped on it for a kill. A service ace by left side Kevin Falconer finished the game as the Golden Bears couldn’t pop it back over the net. They finished the fourth set 25-17.  

With two games for both the Bisons and the Golden Bears left before playoffs Manitoba is now 13-7 and tied for fourth with UBC and Alberta is 19-1 and has clinched first overall.

Bisons head coach Garth Pischke was impressed.

“We fought right to the end and played our best volleyball.  We’re pretty happy, pretty proud,” said Pischke.

Set three was a constant back and forth. The end was point-for-point battle until two consecutive blocks by Alberta’s setter Brett Walsh and middle Tristan Aubry scored the last two points for the set.

In the second set, the home side took the lead in the beginning and stayed in front throughout. In the end, a kill by co-captain Chris Voth hit the middle of the court to win the set 25-23 for the Bisons.

In set one, Manitoba was up by six at the technical time out and they kept their momentum up into the final stretch. Bisons left side player Kevin Falconer checked in and served for the match, hitting the ball over the net where it bounced out of bounds off the Golden Bears for a final score of 25-15. 

Prior to the start of the important match, the Bisons recognized five of their senior players at their regular season last home game as Bisons men’s volleyball players. Co-captains Dane Pischke and Chris Voth, middle players Carson Kauenhowen and Joseph Brooks and libero Derek Nieroda are in their fifth year as University of Manitoba students and will be graduating this semester. Nieroda and Pischke will graduate with degrees from the Asper School of Business, Brooks and Voth with Kinesiology degrees and Kauenhowen with a Bachelor of Arts.

For Dane Pischke there was no better way to finish his Bisons career than beating the #1 team in the country.

“It’s really great. We’ve got a really good team,” said Pischke.

Pischke scored 15 kills for the Bisons and Evan Jackson got the game high of 16.

Jay Olmstead and Mitch Irvine led the visitors with 13 kills each. Golden Bears players Tristan Aubry, Erik Mattson and Mitch Irvine will play in their last regular season home game as University of Alberta men’s volleyball players next weekend.  

Alberta will play at home for the last time in the 2012-13 regular season against Trinity Western next weekend (Friday, February 9 and Saturday, February 10). Both matches will start at 7:30 p.m. MST.

The Bisons will play their last weekend series of the regular conference season at Saskatchewan (14-6) next weekend. The Friday, February 9 and Saturday, February 10 important matches in the Canada West standings will start at 8 p.m. MST.

Source: Thompson Rivers Sports Info

Kamloops, BC - For the second straight year, Thompson Rivers University will not be involvedin the Canada West men’s volleyball playoffs.  The WolfPack were officially eliminated from the 2012-13 playoff hunt when they dropped a 3-1 decision to the Mount Royal Cougars Saturday (Feb 2) night at the Tournament Capital Centre.
The scores were 25-21, 25-17,23-25,25-16. 

That decision, coupled with the University of Winnipeg Wesmen sweeping the UBCO Heat sealed the fate for the WolfPack, who lost their last five matches to start 2013.  They are winless in their last four matches and sit at 6-13.  The Cougars are 8-11 on the season and are still in playoff contention in their first year of Canada West.

“We started the first two sets with little life,” said TRU head coach Pat Hennelly. “They got off to big leads and we continued our quiet play.  It is disappointing.  I wondered what happened in the first two sets. Its  as quiet as we have been at home.  This has been a very up and down second half of the year.”

“It is always great to get a victory,” stated Cougars coach Shawn Sky, now into his ninth year with the program. “ Everything has been a new experience this year.  We are pleased with how the guys played.”

Sky thought the difference was the quality of servces his team delivered.  “We do know that they use a fair number of left sides. We thought we could gain a little bit of an advantage there. I think we did to a degree.  I thought we did a good job staying within our system.”

In this match, the Cougars had three players in double digit kills.  Colton deMan  (4th year, left side, Calgary, AB)was 18 for 45.  Dan Durham (4th year, left side, St. Albert, AB)was 13 for 35 and Lucas Stepanko(3rd year, left side, Grande Prairie, AB) had 10 kills in 25 swings.

Stepanko gained praise from Sky: “ I thought he had a great match. One thing that Thompson Rivers did that we didn’t  expect was the speed of the left side set. I thought our right side did a great job adjusting to that. It  was obvious they were running a 31 overload.  It was pretty effective early in the match but between the aggression we had serving and the adjustments that he, in particular made, It gave us a couple of good runs.”
Marcus Ernewein (1st year, setter, Spruce Grove, AB) had 42 assists.  Durham led the Cougars with 10 digs.

Thompson Rivers was led by Brad Gunter (2nd year, outside hitter, Courtenay, BC) with 11 kills in 35 opportunities. He also had a team high nine digs.

Colin Carson (4th year, setter, Prince George, BC) had 24 assists.

Graham Stoliker (2nd year, setter, Surrey, BC) contributed 12 assists in two sets.

Casey Knight (3rd year, outside hitter, Salt Spring Island, BC)  was named the TRU Bookstore/McDonalds “Leader of the Pack” player of the match. He came in for two sets and had seven kills in 16 opprtunties with two digs and a block assist. 

“It was nice to see Casey and Stu (Richey, 3rd year, outside hitter, Gibsons, BC)come in and add some life,” Hennelly assessed. “ Graham had a nice set. That was all positive stuff.”

Hennelly added that the ‘quiet’  and ‘inconsistant’ play of the WolfPack has been their trademark since the new calender year began. “ Very similar. Our guys look around for someone to make the next play. It is something we have to work through. I told the guys that experience only counts if you make an adjustment. There is no point in experiencing playing these tough matches when we are not adjusting to it.  That what was nice about the third set tonight. It was the appropriate response after being down 2-0.  We had a little energy and life. We know we can play some good volleyball. We showed it in the pre season and in exhibition. We showed it against UBC as an example. We played great volleyball that weekend (a split with UBC).  It is there.  We aren’t losing because we don’t have talent or we are not good. It is very frustrating to play like that when I know the talent we possess.”

The WolfPack  and Cougars meet again on “Super Bowl Sunday” (Feb 3) at 3:45 pm at the Tournament Capital Centre.

Thompson Rivers finished the regular season at home next weekend (Feb 8-9) entertaining the University of Winnipeg Wesmen.  Mount Royal will wind up the season on the road in Vancouver, BC against the UBC Thunderbirds.

Source: Mark Janzen, Trinity Western Sports Info

LANGLEY, British Columbia – The No. 5 Trinity Western men’s volleyball team clinched a home playoff date for the Canada West quarter-finals with a 3-0 (25-21, 25-22, 28-26) win over Calgary Saturday at the Langley Events Centre.

The win improves TWU’s record to 15-5 on the season and ensures the Spartans will host a best-of-three opening round series Feb. 14-16 at the LEC. Calgary drops to 6-14 and is officially eliminated from playoff contention.

In a game that saw both teams hit less than .100 in both the second and third sets, the Spartans managed to pull out the win despite 21 attack errors and 12 serving errors. Calgary countered with20 attack errors and 11 serving errors.

Defensively, the Spartans were led by John Wiebe (Abbotsford, B.C.) who tied his own Spartans record for digs in a three-set match with 19. Wiebe also had 19 digs in a match against Winnipeg Nov. 27, 2010. Prior to tonight’s game, no Spartan had earned more than eight digs in a three-set match this season.

On the offence, it was Nick Del Bianco (Surrey, B.C.) leading the Spartans with 15 kills, including eight in the first set alone. Steven Marshall (Abbotsford) added 12 kills while Dan Jansen Van Doorn (Langley) led the team with seven blocks. Lucas Van Berkel (Edmonton) had five blocks

Calgary was led by Greg Mann (Brisbane, Australia), who had a team-high 15 kills to go with seven digs. Sean Tuff (Red Deer, Alta.) added seven kills while setter Jackson Maris (Edson, Alta.) had 23 assists and a team-high 14 digs. Trent Monagle (Grande Prairie, Alta.) had a team-high three blocks.

On a night when the Spartans honoured their four graduating seniors, the group, which included Steven Marshall, Jarrod Offereins, Dan Jansen Van Doorn and John Wiebe, combined for 15 kills, 33 assists, 32 digs and 12 blocks.

“I’m just happy for the seniors that we got a win and secured a home berth in the playoffs,” said Spartans coach Ben Josephson. “All the senior’s friends and families were here and the guys found a way to win the match.

“It was just a weird game. We had some odd bounces. Our opponents were scrappy and never let us build momentum by getting aces or roof blocks early on. It was hard to get some momentum going. It was a bit of dead night so, given the environment, I thought our guys played well.”

Calgary opened the night on a hot streak as it built a quick 6-3 lead. But following that, TWU came alive. The Spartans went on a 9-2 run that gave the home side a 12-8 advantage and a lead it wouldn’t surrender. Led by Del Bianco, who had eight kills in the set, the Spartans pulled away down the stretch. Calgary got to within one point, at 14-13, after a kill from Jeremy Guenther (Sylvan Lake, Alta.), but the Spartans quickly reapplied the pressure and ultimately pulled away for a 25-21 win. A Van Berkel kill finished the set.

In the second set, neither team possessed anything more than a two-point edge until TWU finally broke it open by going up 16-13 at the technical timeout. The Spartans pushed that lead to five with two straight points after the break. But Calgary responded. Down 20-15, Calgary went on a 5-1 run, capped by a Mann kill that made it a one-point game, 21-20. But TWU stopped the Dinos comeback there. The Spartans scored four of the final six points to close out the set ahead 25-22.

The third set saw TWU take a 7-4 lead and, from there, hold an advantage the rest of the way. With TWU up 12-9, the Spartans went on a 4-1 run, capped by a Del Bianco kill, to go into the technical timeout with a six-point lead, 16-10. But Calgary fought back, getting to within one point, at 23-22, after a Connor Frehlich (Calgary) kill. Then, after staving off two match points, Calgary tied the set 24-24. Then, twice more, the Dinos avoided losing match point, at 25-24 and 26-25. But finally, on the Spartans fifth crack at match point, TWU took the set 28-26 after a Dinos attack error.

The Spartans are on the road for the final weekend of the regular season as they travel to play Alberta Feb. 8-9 while Calgary returns home to host Regina.

Game Notes: TWU had a 12-3 advantage in blocks…Calgary didn’t have a block until the third set…TWU had a 4-2 edge in aces.