CIS men's volleyball Saturday roundup: UBC Okanagan claims school's first-ever conference playoff spot

Fourth-year right side hitter Mitchell Woodside recorded 19 kills as the Varsity Blues men’s volleyball team fell just short in a 3-2 (16-25, 25-20, 31-29, 17-25, 11-15)
loss to the McMaster Marauders on Saturday afternoon at the Athletic Centre Sports Gym.

A native of Clyde River, P.E.I., Woodside totalled a game-high 19 kills, while adding seven digs and three serving aces.  Sophomores Matthew Vares and Jake Dysselhof added 11 and 14 kills, respectively, while Michael Denton notched 19 digs in the loss.

After dropping the first set 25-16, the Blues battled back and evened the match 1-1.  A long see-saw third set would see U of T take the lead; however, the Marauders came back in full force, edging the Blues in both the fourth fifth to secure the win.

Mantha led the Marauders with 16 kills and eight digs.

The Varsity Blues wrap up their 2011-12 campaign tomorrow afternoon as they host the Ryerson Rams at the Athletic Centre Sports Gym. Game time is set for 3 p.m.

Source: Toronto Sports Info'

The University of Calgary's men's volleyball team cruised to its second straight-sets win in as many nights over the Regina Cougars on Saturday at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.

Calgary opened the match with a 25-20 win in the first set before scoring a convincing 25-16 victory in the second set over the host Cougars. The Dinos didn't trail throughout the entire third set, but head coach Rod Durrant needed to call a timeout after attack errors on three consecutive match points brought the Cougars to within one point.

The timeout did the trick, and Calgary clinched the match with an Allen Meek kill.

The three-set victory is huge for the Dinos, as the first tiebreaker in the Canada West standings is sets won/lost differential. Calgary and Brandon both end up with 11-9 records, but the Dinos' +5 differential puts them in fourth place and gives them the right to host the Bobcats in a best-of-three Canada West quarterfinal series.

Graham Vigrass led Calgary in kills for the third consecutive match, ending up with 12 and also leading all players with a .579 hitting percentage. Meek had 11 kills, while Jace Richards led Calgary with six digs.

Rookie right side Andrew Nelson led the Cougars with 13 kills, while graduating fifth-year outside hitter Brody Waddell had 11 kills and a team-high .300 hitting percentage.

Besides Waddell, the Cougars (4-16) also had three other players in their final matches in U of R uniforms. Jamie Wilkins had nine kills and no reception errors on 31 serve receives, while Joel Colter's block in the first set gave him 150 for his career – and the University of Regina's all-time lead in the category. The team's other fifth-year player, Drew Smith, ends his career with 149 blocks.

Calgary and Brandon will begin their Canada West quarterfinal series next weekend.

Source: Regina Sports Info

The No. 2 ranked Manitoba Bisons men’s volleyball team beat the Saskatchewan Huskies on Saturday, February 11, at the Investors Group Athletic Centre. Manitoba finished in three sets (25-21, 25-22, 25-17) against the unranked Huskies. With the win, the Bisons end their regular season with a 18-2 record.

Ryan Munt was honoured before the match to commemorate his last regular season game with Manitoba. The fifth-year captain is the only Bison to surpass 1000 digs. He added 10 digs to those numbers. The usually calm and quiet Dane Pischke, helped keep a few Huskies bench players quiet too. He led the team with 31 kills and made sure to give the hecklers on the bench a few looks after every slam.

“He’s an unassuming player he just keeps getting his kills and getting his blocks and his digs,” said coach Pischke. “He’s done it every night for us this year and that’s why he’s leading the country in kills.”

Huskies middle, Geoffrey Zerr emerged as the leading hitter even though Huskies coach Brian Gavlas switched him to the right side. Zerr and the 6”9 middle Braden McLean helped with the strength of Saskatchewan’s game, their blocks. McLean finished with 10 and Zerr with eight. Their blocking also helped soften Bison hits and give the team a few second chances on Dane Pischke’s hits.

Saskatchewan took the early lead in the first set, but Chris Voth helped narrow the gap by serving two aces and enough rapid spin serves to let his teammates receive easy Huskies over-bumps. Saskatchewan out-blocked the Bisons but they were better up top than on the court. A few tips and well placed roll shots showed the Huskies shortcomings on the hardwood. It didn’t matter whether Dane Pischke was in front row because the Huskies couldn’t do anything about his back-row hits from the right side.  

Coach Pischke was all smiles after the game and looking ahead to the playoffs.

“We’re looking forward to it,” he said. “We’re really excited to get there and we can’t wait. We don’t care who we play, we’re ready to play some ball.”

Source: Manitoba Sports Info

LANGLEY, British Columbia – The No. 1 ranked Trinity Western men’s volleyball team won its first ever Canada West regular season league title as it finished the year with a 19-1 record following a 3-0 (25-15, 25-13, 25-16) win over No. 6 UBC Saturday at the Langley Events Centre.

With their first place finish, the Spartans will host the Canada West Final Four Feb. 24-25 and, with four Canada West team qualifying for the CIS national championship, have automatically earned themselves a spot at the national title event March 2-4 in Kingston, Ont. where it will be hosted by Queen’s. The Spartans will play in the second semifinal Friday, Feb. 24 at 8:00 p.m. against a to be determined opponent.

Not unlike Friday night, the Spartans were an efficient lot from start to finish, hitting .443 compared to UBC, who hit .071, as they systematically made short work of the Thunderbirds on a night when everything seemed to go their way. And, fittingly, on senior night, the Spartans three fifth-year players were in on the match-ending score as Marc Howatson received the serve, Ben Ball made the set and Rudy Verhoeff got the kill.

Trinity Western was led by setter Ball, who had 37 assists, as he set the Canada West single season record for assists per set at 11.54. The previous record was held by Brandon’s Andrew Korol, who had 11.49 per set in 2008-09.

Also leading the way for the Spartans were Verhoeff, who had 16 kills, three digs and a block, Howatson, who had five aces, five kills, six digs and two blocks, and Lucas Van Berkel, who had five kills, six blocks, three digs and an ace.

The T-birds were led by Tanner Kozak, who had five kills and one block, Robert Bennett, who had four kills and two blocks, and Noah Derksen, who had four kills and two digs.

With the win the Spartans set the school record for most wins in the regular season and they have now won 17 in a row at the Langley Events Centre, including exhibition, regular season and playoffs.

The loss drops UBC to 10-10 on the season, as they finished sixth in the conference and will open the playoffs on the road against Alberta.

“We had winning the regular season as one of our key goals and they earned it all season long,” said Spartans coach Ben Josephson. “They only had one blemish on their record, and we were soundly beaten that day, but it’s great to get that first ever for our program. It’s great to win the league and it’s great to get another home date for something that matters and it’s great to get a bye week and to do it on senior night is really special.

“We passed the ball really well. We served the ball really tough and once Benny [Ball] is in his system with the weapons we have around him, I thought he did a great job of giving them great opportunities and they made great decisions out of it. We had some match-up opportunities and Benny exploited them. It was a really fun night.”

The first set started with the teams trading points until the game was tied 9-9.

But then, a kill by Verhoeff launched the Spartans offensive attack as they scored six straight points to take a 15-9 lead following a Steven Marshall kill.

The T-Birds clawed back to within three points at 16-13 after a Kozak kill but shortly thereafter, it was the Spartans reestablishing control and going on a 4-0 run to take a 20-13 lead. A Ball and Van Berkel block finished the set with the Spartans up 25-15. Trinity Western finished the set hitting .407 compared to UBC who hit .032.

Verhoeff had a set-high four kills while UBC’s Bennett and Kozak each had three kills.

The second set saw the Spartans in complete control as they started with a 5-1 run and never looked back. After a pair of Howatson aces, Trinity Western took a 10-5 lead and continued to roll.

With both Verhoeff and Marshall contributing three kills each, the Spartans hit .471 and only made two attack errors in the set, cruising to a 12-point win, 25-13. Howatson finished the set with three aces.

The T-Birds Kozak and Cary Brett each had two kills in the set to lead UBC, who hit .000.

The third set was simply more of the same as Trinity Western hit .462 en route to a convincing nine-point win.

With the score 3-3, a Dan Jansen Van Doorn ace sparked a 9-0 from the Spartans that gave Trinity Western a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. A kill from Van Berkel capped the run with the Spartans up 12-3.

From there, Trinity Western rolled the rest of the way as they never led by less than seven points.

Game Notes – TWU finished with eight blocks compared to UBC’s five…TWU had eight aces while UBC had one…TWU made eight attack errors compared to UBC who made 20.

Source: Trinity Western Sports Info

KELOWNA, B.C. - The UBC Okanagan Heat’s momentum from last night’s sweep of the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack continued tonight. The Heat locked up a first ever berth in the Canada West playoffs in their first year in Canada West when they dropped the ‘Pack in three sets for a second straight night (25-16, 25-12, 25-20) at UBC’s Okanagan campus tonight in Kelowna.

Heat outside hitter Greg Niemantsverdriet (3rd year, Vernon, BC) had an outstanding game with a game high 16 kills on the match, lethal on offense as he was good on half of his attacks (.500 hitting percentage). Second for the Heat in kills was outside hitter Riley McFarland (4th year, Surrey, BC), who leveled 12 kills and had a .556 hitting percentage. As a team the Heat were very effective with a team .481 attack percentage. Team captain and setter Preston Tucker (5th year, Vernon, BC) put up 33 assists and eight digs in his last regular season game as a fifth year senior.

The ‘Pack’s Aleks Saddlemyer (5th year, Sidney, BC) put down a team high seven kills tonight. Setter Mike Hawkins (5th year, Lethbridge, AB) put up 16 assists for the WolfPack tonight. Mohamed Rehim (1st year, Cairo, Egypt) contributed 5 kills for his team.

With the win, the Heat improve to 8-12 on the season and are headed to playoffs in their first year of play in CIS. The ‘Pack close out the 2011-12 Canada West regular season with a 3-17 record.

Source: UBC Okanagan Sports Info