EDMONTON – Earning their spot in the Canada West title match, the defending champion University of Alberta Golden Bears complete the comeback, after a first-set setback, taking a four-set win (21-25, 25-17, 25-18, 25-17) over the UBC Thunderbirds, Friday night at the Saville Community Sports Centre.
Alberta moves on to the Canada West Final on Saturday, looking to earn its 12th conference title in team history, and perhaps just as important, the Bears also clinch a spot in the CIS championship, February 26 – 28, at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Sask. The Thunderbirds will play in the bronze medal game on Saturday, facing off against the Brandon University Bobcats.
"Winning Canada West is an honour," recalls Alberta head coach Terry Danyluk, "and we're definitely excited to be playing for it again tomorrow. Competing for the CIS championship is always the goal, but coming out of Canada West as the champions is an honour and something we take very seriously. This conference was a real dogfight this year, and we've had guys dealing with injuries all season, so to be in a position to come out on top of the Canada West, and go to CIS as the conference champion is something we're serious about accomplishing."
Canada West First Team All-Star Ryley Barnes led a scoring-by-committee offence for Alberta on Friday night, spinning a game-high 13 kills, and adding three aces, while three other players also cracked the double-digit barrier. Third-year left side Ryan Nickifor netted 11 kills while fourth-year right side Kevin Proudfoot and third-year middle Taylor Arnett chipped in 10 apiece. Proudfoot, a resident of Calgary, also recorded five aces during a big momentum shift in the third set. CIS assist leader Brett Walsh tallied a game-high 40 assists.
Third-year outside hitter Mac McNicol, a Canada West Second Team All-Star, threw down eight kills for the visitors, fourth-years Alex Russell and Ben Chow adding a half-dozen kills each while fourth-year setter Milan Nikic posted 30 assists.
While three of four teams at this weekend's conference championship were fighting for their spots last weekend in best-of-three conference quarter-finals, Alberta had a couple weeks off due to clinching first place and championship hosting duties in the final days of the regular season.
"We've been off for two weeks, but it's always a pleasure to play at home. I really like our gym, and I like being able to sleep in my own bed and all of those other perks that come with hosting. Some people would say that the time off between regular season and the championship is too long, but I think it benefited us. We had some guys rest and heal up, and our guys really like playing in our gym."
Unfortunately for the home team, the opening set was not the start they were hoping for, errors besetting their chances at momentum, one by Proudfoot starting a 9-1 run for UBC that broke open a close set and put the visitors ahead by five at 20-15.
Chow got all six of his kills in the first set, the last one coming off the yet-to-be-redeemed Proudfoot in the back row for set point before senior setter Ian Cooper threw a long serve for Alberta's fifth error from the service line in the set, giving the T-birds the 1-0 set lead.
"I don't think that first set was sluggishness from being off for two weeks, maybe hesitation, but we finished the season with a pair of five-set games that prepared us really well for these games. And, we practiced really well in the lead up to this week as well, so I don't think it was sluggishness, but maybe hesitation."
UBC continued their momentum into the second set but only briefly as Alberta and the T-birds engaged in a momentum battle, mini-runs filling the scoresheet for both sides before the Bears fully wrestled control with a 9-2 run, making it 21-12 on the scoreboard.
Proudfoot then began his redemptive arc when he put down two consecutive kills for the home team, putting his first down the line off Nikic and his second, a cross-court howitzer.
A long serve by McNicol and a cross-court kill by Nickifor into the far right corner brought the teams even at 1-1.
"We started passing really well, that was a big difference to our turnaround tonight. Ryan Nickifor, who was named player of the game for us, passed at a very high level and that really helped our game tonight."
After a back-and-forth beginning to the third set, Proudfoot began his momentous run with two aces bookending a Walsh kill, followed by three more successive attempts at the service line as part of a 7-0 run that had Alberta up 12-5 and the hometown crowd at full volume.
Although the T-birds snuck back into the set twice on attack and service errors by the Bears, they couldn't completely erase the deficit, Barnes giving Alberta the 2-1 set lead with a decisive mid-court kill.
The St. Paul, Alta. native had another early in the final set, but UBC was unwilling to give up, hanging around throughout the entire set, as the Bears were able to pick up a couple of points intermittently while going point-for-point for the rest of the set to put them within arm's reach of the gold medal game.
After senior outside hitter Quentin Schmidt was the unfortunate culprit of three straight errors, by getting prevented by a block, receiving a Nickifor ace, and spinning an attempted kill out of bounds on the side line, Goranson finished the match with a kill off the UBC block that fell beyond the side line on the Alberta side.
"Trinity has an excellent program. It's going to be very tough. They've won 16 straight matches going into tomorrow, so it'll be a real fight."
The Bears go for gold at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday while the T-birds play in the bronze medal game, start time at 5:00 p.m.