QUARTERFINAL :#2 CIS championship: Trinity Western takes Queen's 3-0

Photo credit Andrew Snucins / Courtesy of Thompson Rivers University Sports Information

KAMLOOPS, BC (CIS)-The Trinity Western Spartans of the Canada West used their speed and pace to their advantage as they captured their first match at the 2010 CIS Men's National Volleyball Championships . The Spartans downed the Ontario Champion Queen's University Gaels 3-0 in their first round match. The scores were 25-19, 25-23,25-19 at the Tournament Capital Center in Kamloops.

Championship website (including complete stats): http://english.cis-sic.ca/championships/mvball

Video

" I was pretty disappointed with our serving," said Queens coach Brenda Willis " Today, we made a lot of untimely errors. We needed to serve better against a very good offense. Ben (Ball, 3rd year, Abbotsford ,BC) is a very good setter. We were being aggressive and we made more errors than we would have liked."

Spartans coach Ben Josephson felt the match was closer than the score indicated. " One of the things we try to pride our selves on is if the opposition can execute with us, then we hope to win 25-23. I thought Queen's raised their level of play in the second and third sets. I don't think we changed our play, they got better."

The Gaels were in each of the sets. "Physically, I think we match up said Willis. " I would love to play Trinity on a regular basis because I think we could both grow from playing each other. In Ontario, there aren't any teams which run that tempo of offense with three or four attackers coming at you all the time. We weren't used to it."

Josephson thought the Spartans' speed dictated the match. " I thought Queen's had a tough time getting used to our angles and speed at the start of the match. We thought we are a pretty fast team. I have to admit that some of their plays had us off guard. In Canada West, we don't see a lot of second temps and they were really effective when they executed them."
The Spartans were led by Blackberry Game MVP Steven Marshall (2nd year, left side, Abbotsford, BC) who had 15 kills in 25 chances. Ball wound up with 36 assists and six digs.
Queen's main man was Bryan Fautley (4th year, outside hitter, Oakville, Ont) who had 11 kills in 20 opportunities. " He had a great game on the right side," said Willis. "But we needed to pass better and were almost playing transition defence the entire match." Daniel Rosenbaum (4th year, setter, Hamilton, Ont) had 33 assists.

The Spartans will take on Laval in one of the Championship Semi Finals on Saturday (Mar 13). Queen's now faces the University of Montreal in the consolation side semi finals on Saturday (Mar 13).

Other opening round match ups have the host Thompson Rivers University WolfPack meeting the two time defending national champion Alberta Golden Bears at 6 pm PDT. The final match of the day has Calgary Dinos facing Dalhousie Tigers at 8 pm PDT.

STATS LEADERS

Trinity Western
Kills: Steven Marshall (15), Marc Howatson (8)
Blocks: Rudy Verhoeff (4)
Digs: Ben Ball (6)
Assists: Ben Ball (36)
BlackBerry player of the match: Steven Marshall

Queen's
Kills: Bryan Fautley (11), Niko Rukavina (6)
Blocks: Sam Pedlow (2), Daniel Rosenbaum (2)
Digs: Niko Rukavina (6) Alex Oneid (5)
Assists: Daniel Rosenbaum (33)

BlackBerry player of the match: Justin Duff

SCHEDULE & RESULTS (all times LOCAL: Pacific Time)

Friday, March 12

Quarter-final #1: Laval 3, Montreal 0 (25-20, 25-20,, 25-18)
15:00 Quarter-final #2: Trinity Western 3 Queen's (25-19,15-23,25-19)
18:00 Quarter-final #3: No. 2 Alberta vs. No. 7 Thompson Rivers (SSN Canada)
20:00 Quarter-final #4: No. 3 Dalhousie vs. No. 6 Calgary (SSN Canada)

Saturday, March 13

13:00 Consolation #1: Montreal vs. Queen's
15:00 Consolation #2: Loser QF #3 vs. Loser QF #4
18:00 Semi-final #1: Laval vs. Trinity Western (SSN Canada)
20:00 Semi-final #2: Winner QF #3 vs. Winner QF #4 (SSN Canada)

Sunday, March 14

13:00 5th place
15:00 Bronze medal (SSN Canada)
18:00 Championship final (SSN Canada)

-CIS-