#5 Trinity Western 3 #4 Alberta 2
(25-23, 23-25, 25-17, 21-25, 15-11)
Golden Bears-Spartans Stats
LANGLEY, B.C. (CIS) – The fourth-seeded and tournament host Trinity Western Spartans edged the No. 5 Alberta Golden Bears in a five-set thriller (25-23, 23-25, 25-17, 21-25, 15-11) in the third quarter-final match of the CIS men’s volleyball championship, Friday evening, in front of a near-capacity crowd at the Langley Events Centre.
In a rematch of last Saturday’s Canada West bronze-medal game, won in four sets by Trinity Western, the Spartans jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead in the fifth and decisive frame and never looked back. TWU returns to the CIS semifinals, where will play Calgary on Saturday at 8:00 p.m. PST.
The Alberta loss puts an end to one of the most remarkable streaks in CIS men’s volleyball history. The six-time Tantramar Trophy champion Bears had reached the CIS podium each of the past nine seasons, a sequence that included four gold medals, four silvers and last year’s bronze.
Alberta will play Sherbrooke on the consolation side of the draw Saturday at 3:00 p.m. PST (2:00 MT).
Trinity Western was led by CIS Second Team All-Star Rudy Verhoeff, who had 21 kills, Josh Doornenbal, who had 16 kills and CIS All-Rookie Team member Nick Del Bianco.
Alberta did well to stay alive and keep the game within three points at but was never closer. And on a night when the home crowd played a large role, it was Verhoeff’s 21st kill that sealed the deal.
The Golden Bears had four players with double-digits in kills as Olmstead finished with 16, Leiske had 13, Lidster had 11 and Justin Merta had 10.
Spartan Athletics
#3 Brandon 3 #6 McMaster 1
(25-15, 25-19, 21-25, 25-15)
Marauders-Bobcats Stats
LANGLEY, B.C. (CIS) - The No. 3 seeded Brandon Bobcats earned a spot in the CIS national championship’s early semifinal with a strong effort in knocking off the No. 6 seeded McMaster Marauders 3-1 (25-15, 25-19, 21-25, 25-15) Friday at the Langley Events Centre.
The Bobcats' Kevin Miller rode the hit parade early and often as he led Brandon with 24 kills, while teammate Paul Sanderson had 17 kills to help lead the Canada West silver medalists to a convincing win. Brandon will now play Saturday’s semifinal at 6:00 p.m. against Laval.
After dominating the first two sets and keeping McMaster from hitting 20 points on both occasions, the Ontario champions roared back in the third set to give the Marauders life and hope. But after Brandon fell behind early in the fourth set, 5-2, Miller got a kill to get Brandon to within one point, then Sanderson went to the service line and crushed an ace and from there the Bobcats completely took over.
“We started well for sure,” said Brandon coach Russ Paddock. “We were good with serving and passing, which we needed to be. McMaster got into the game a little bit and started to pass better and put us in a little trouble on serve receive and started digging a bunch of ball, which made the game interesting in the third set.
“You always like to see them play a whole match all the way through but McMaster is a good team so they deserved to win that [third] set. But we were able to regroup and play like we did the first two.”
The Bobcats were led by Miller how had 24 kills and Sanderson who finished with 17 kills. Kyle Dellezay had a game-high 55 assists and Scott Neufeld had a game-high nine digs.
For McMaster Shayne Petrusma and Kevin Stevens each had 11 kills. Austin Campion-Smith had 39 assists and also a team-leading eight digs.
gobobcats.ca
#1 Calgary 3 #8 Sherbrooke 0
(25-12, 26-24, 25-18)
Vert et Or-Dinos Stats
by Ben Matchett, U of Calgary Sports Information
LANGLEY, B.C. – Led by a solid effort by newly-minted CIS player of the year Graham Vigrass, the top-seeded University of Calgary Dinos took the first step toward defending their national title – but the next one is shaping up to be a whole lot tougher.
No. 1 Calgary looked shaky at times but still managed to come out with a 3-0 win over eighth-seeded Sherbrooke (25-12, 26-24, 25-18) in the national quarterfinal Friday night at the Langley Events Centre, setting up a showdown with the hometown Trinity Western Spartans in the late semifinal on Saturday.
It will be a rematch of the 2010 national championship game, which the Dinos won in four sets over the Spartans in Kamloops, B.C. to win their first national championship since 2003.
Vigrass scored kills on his first seven attempts of the night and finished with 13 kills on 22 attempts with just one error to hit at a solid .545 clip while chipping in with seven block assists.
Maxime-Rock Claessens Rivest carried the mail for the Vert & Or, recording 12 of his team’s 31 kills on the night while Pierre-Marc Lussier added seven. Sherbrooke put up a total of three stuff blocks against Calgary’s 9.5 while the Dinos out-dug their adversaries by a 42-29 margin.
The late semifinal is scheduled for a 9:00 p.m. MT first serve Saturday night, following the early match which pits the No. 2 Laval Rouge et Or against the No. 3 Brandon Bobcats. Both games have a live webcast.
godinos.com
About Canadian Interuniversity Sport
Canadian Interuniversity Sport is the national governing body of university sport in Canada. Fifty-one universities, 10,000 student-athletes and 550 coaches vie for 21 national championships in 12 different sports. CIS also provides high performance international opportunities for Canadian student-athletes at Winter and Summer Universiades, as well as numerous world university championships. For further information, visit www.cis-sic.ca.