Brian Swane, Special to Canada West
EDMONTON – The Canada West men's volleyball semifinals will feature the three-time reigning champs, and three upstart teams that have already advanced further than they did a year ago.
Trinity Western continues its quest for four straight conference titles when it takes on Thompson Rivers and top-seeded Brandon battles Mount Royal in a pair of best-of-three series.
Winners advance to the 2019 Canada West Championship, to be hosted by the highest remaining seed next week, and secure a berth in the upcoming U SPORTS Championship tournament at Laval.
No. 4 Mount Royal (10-12 reg. season, 2-0 playoffs) -AT- No. 1 Brandon (20-2, 2-0)
- Healthy Living Centre in Brandon
- Game 1 – Thursday, 7 p.m. CST
- Game 2 – Friday, 7 p.m. CST
- Game 3* - Saturday, 7 p.m. CST
There's no team with more confidence than the Brandon Bobcats, who won their final 16 games of the regular season before dispatching of Calgary in two games last week in the best-of-three quarterfinals. The last team to beat Brandon? That would be the Cougars, who posted 3-0 and 3-1 wins over the Bobcats at the beginning of November. Those games were in Calgary, however, while this series will take place at the Healthy Living Centre, where Brandon is 13-0 including the regular season and playoffs, and enjoys the largest attendance in the conference. Mount Royal is in the Canada West semifinal round for the first time in program history, having swept Saskatchewan in the quarter-finals last weekend. MRU's roster includes the conference's individual leaders in kills per set (Tyler Schmidt, 4.61), while Brandon was first among teams with 13.12 kills per set.
No. 6 Thompson Rivers (11-11, 2-0) -AT- No. 2 Trinity Western (18-4, 2-1)
- Langley Events Centre in Langley
- Game 1 – Thursday, 9 p.m. PST
- Game 2 – Friday, 9 p.m. PST
- Game 3* - Saturday, 8:30 p.m. PST
Coming into the playoffs, these teams were going in opposite directions, with Trinity Western having won seven games in a row, while the Wolfpack had dropped four of their previous six. But in last week's quarter-finals, it was the Spartans that needed to go the distance to get past UBC in three games, while TRU stunned the Alberta Golden Bears 2-0 in Edmonton. The Spartans posted consecutive 3-0 victories over Thompson Rivers at the Langley Events Centre in mid-January. The teams also squared off in the 2018 post-season, with Trinity Western sweeping the WolfPack in the quarters. Outside hitter Tim Dobbert played every single set for Thompson Rivers this season, racking up a conference-high 379 kills. TWU's Eric Loeppky is the 2018-19 Canada West leader in hitting percentage (.374) and service aces per set (0.58).