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CIS quarterfinal #1: No. 2 Laval off to first semi-final in 7 years
Courtesy of U of Alberta sports information
EDMONTON (CIS) - The No. 2-seeded Laval Rouge et Or are heading to
the semi-final round of the CIS men's volleyball championship for
the first time since 2002 thanks to a tight straight-set victory
(25-23, 25-22, 25-20) over the No. 7 Winnipeg Wesmen in the opening
match of the 2009 national tournament, Friday afternoon, at the
University of Alberta.
Championship website:
www.cisport.ca/e/championships/m_volleyball/2009
Quebec champion Laval, which went 18-0 in QSSF conference play,
advances to Saturday's first semi-final at 6:30 p.m. Mountain Time,
where they will face the winners of the quarterfinal duel between
No. 3 McMaster and No. 6 Thompson Rivers.
The Rouge et Or had dropped six consecutive quarterfinal matches
to Canada West opponents since a 3-0 win over Calgary in 2002, also
at the U of A gym.
Laval, making their 12th straight appearance at the national
championship, is the last team from outside of Canada West to have
won the Tantramar trophy, taking the hardware to Quebec in 1994.
Head coach Pascal Clement has arguably one of the strongest teams
in Edmonton and now that they have exorcised their opening match
demons, stand a good chance to play for gold.
"We've been waiting since 2002 to win this opening match in what
is always a tough tournament," exclaimed Clement. "Winnipeg played
a very tough match, especially in the beginning, but we adapted
very well to their system and came back and played how we needed
to, in order to win."
The Wesmen, who defeated Laval in the opening round in 2007 en
route to their record-tying 10th Tantramar trophy victory, will
play in Saturday's first consolation match at 1 p.m. MT. Winnipeg
had also reached the national final a year ago against Alberta.
Leading Laval on the attack was Karl De Grandpré
(Pierreville, Que.), who belted 17 kills, while player-of-the-match
honours went to CIS first-team all-Canadian outside Thierry Lavigne
(Rockland, Ont.), who recorded 15 kills, one of two Laval aces and
seven digs.
"They say big players are supposed to shine in big game, and I
guess I had a pretty good game today," Lavigne said. "Everyone on
the team did their job today, and I just did mine."
Outside Andrew Town and setter Daniel Lother, both of Winnipeg,
paced the Wesmen, with Town recording 14 kills while Lother dished
out 38 assists, six digs and two blocks.
Justin Duff, a 6-foot-7 middle also from Winnipeg, was named
player of the match for the Canada West semi-finalists after he
banked 11 kills and an impressive 60% attack efficiency.
Although the Wesmen bowed out in straight sets, they were
competitive up until the final whistle. The biggest deficit the
Wesmen ever faced was a seven-point gap in the third set at 20-13,
but after a time-out by head coach Larry McKay, they rolled out a
5-0 run to cut the gap to 20-18.
Through both the first and second sets, Winnipeg never trailed by
any more than two points - except at the end of the second frame -
and several times, held two-point leads of their own.
The two teams were neck-and-neck through the opening two stanzas,
literally trading leads back and forth, right up until match point.
The difference for the Rouge et Or proved to be their ability to
adapt to Winnipeg's offence. Laval recorded 12 total blocks by
match end, allowing them to stop Winnipeg's attack and gain control
of the sets.
After stopping Winnipeg's momentum in the third, Lavinge spun a
service ace to put Laval up 22-18 and a spectacular solo block by
Frederic Desbiens gave them the match point. After the Wesmen
stormed back to make it 24-20, Lother sent his serve long, giving
the Rouge et Or the match.
STATS LEADERS
Laval
Kills: Karl De Grandpré (17), Thierry Lavigne (15),
Frédéric Desbiens (14)
Blocks: Jean-François St.-Amour (4)
Digss: Nicholas Quirion (9), Thierry Lavigne (7)
Assists: Olivier Faucher (47)
Player of the match: Thierry Lavigne
Winnipeg
Kills: Andrew Town (14), Justin Duff (11)
Blocks: Daniel Lother (2)
Digs: Daniel Lother (6), Paul Kjos (5)
Assists: Daniel Lother (38)
Player of the match: Justin Duff
