EDMONTON - Third-year setter Brett Walsh continued his banner year with the No.2 University of Alberta Golden Bears, tying a career-high in assists and netting match point in a five-set comeback win (22-25, 25-19, 20-25, 25-14, 15-8), a victory over the Mount Royal University Cougars that clinched the regular season conference title for Alberta, Saturday night at Saville Community Sports Centre.
The Calgary native recorded 57 assists, matching his output from November 14, 2014 at UBC, also recording a team-high 10 digs to go with one momentous kill and his solo, match-winning ace. Walsh is also the first-ever men's volleyball player to record more than 1,000 assists in a single season, finishing his 2014-15 campaign with 1,031. Fourth-year left side Ryley Barnes spun a game-high 19 kills for Alberta while fourth-year middle John Goranson and third-year left side Ryan Nickifor added 15 kills apiece.
Rookie outside hitter Tyler Schmidt had a team-high 18 kills for Mount Royal, fourth-year outside hitter Jordan Parkin chipping in a dozen kills while third-year setter Samuel Brisbane from Melbourne, Australia put up team highs with 45 assists and 12 digs.
With the win, the Bears claim first place in Canada West with a 21-3 record while the Cougars drop to 11-13, out of playoff contention. Alberta's position earns them a "bye" to the Canada West Final Four as well as hosting duties for the event on the February 20-22 weekend.
Mount Royal made victory anything but easy on Saturday evening, despite the Bears getting the first big heap of momentum off a monster block by Goranson and Nickifor early in the opening set, exciting the spectators in attendance.
Yet a 7-1 run by the visitors put them up by a 12-9 score before the Bears fought back with a couple of Alex McMullin aces to knot things up at 12-12.
Undeterred, fourth-year Michael Wickstrom started a quick 4-1 run for the Cougars, this time the team holding on to the lead all the way to the end of the back-and-forth set before Schmidt ended things with a kill too powerful for the Alberta block.
The Bears broke open a 5-5 score in the second set with a quick three-point run before Mount Royal stole the momentum on a long rally, only to lose it with two straight snipes by Alberta, using their small lead to inch their way to a 1-1 tie, Goranson throwing down another laser kill for the match point, straight down at the net.
A huge momentum swing propelled the Cougars to an 11-6 start in the third set, however, the Bears reducing the deficit to as little as three before the visitors pushed back, capitalizing on service errors as well as attack errors by the home team, including match point when Barnes got blocked by the duo of Parkin and third-year middle Josh Kirkham.
Down 2-1 in the set score, Alberta's offence found an even higher gear, attacking at a blistering 54.5% in the fourth set with Goranson, Nickifor, and Barnes combining for 15 kills of the team's 19.
Choosing quality over quantity, Walsh made his solo kill a crowd-pleaser, leaping high up into the stratosphere before commanding the ball to the ground on the Cougar side of the net, only making the score 10-4 at the time, but putting all the momentum squarely behind the defending CIS champions, leading to a fifth and final set.
Getting off to a 3-0 start, the Bears let up to allow the road team back into the game, even though Alberta remained ahead on its blocking skills, the front row combining to make it 9-6 before fourth-year right side Kevin Proudfoot went solo to make it 11-8 for the Bears.
The elation of the hometown crowd on Proudfoot's effort shook the visitors just enough to go long on two straight attacks before Walsh finished his storied season, driving an ace towards Parkin, who couldn't steer the ball back into play, giving the Bears a ticket to the Final Four.
While the Cougars return home, the Bears will await their opponents in the Canada West Final Four after the results of next weekend's conference quarter-finals.