CIS WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL RECAP: Queen's and McMaster downed in consolations

Hamilton, Ont. – The No. 5 Saint Mary's Huskies survived a scare from host McMaster Marauders to advancing to the consolation final for the first time in school history. Down two sets, the AUS champions rallied to win three straight over the hometown Marauders.

Saint Mary's have never finished higher than seventh place at the CIS championship and today's win guarantees them a finish no less than sixth place. The Huskies have finished tied for seventh in their six previous appearances. Including their last in 2010.

Kerri Smit's 24.5 points earned her Player of the Game honours for the second straight day. The fifth-year left side hitter has tallied a total of 52.5 points in two games to lead the tournament.

The Huskies rebounded after a tough five set loss to the McGill Martlets in the opening game.

“I think we really showed how we didn’t want to go into the locker room [with a loss] feeling like we did yesterday,” said Smit. “We did what we had to do and got the job done, but hopefully we can come out tomorrow hard right from the get go and represent the AUS well.”

The Huskies will face the No. 6 Spartans for the 5th place match at 11 a.m.

For the Marauders, left-side Kailee Stock of Newmarket, Ont. tallied a team-high 15 kills. Libero Meagan Nederveen had a game-high 22 digs in McMaster's last game of the season. Shannon McRobert was named Player of the Game for her 8 kills, 4.5 blocks and 2 aces and reflected on her CIS Championship experience.

“I thought we fought hard and I’m so proud of my team,” said McRobert. “Sometimes it just doesn’t go the way you want. We started out strong and it doesn’t matter what the outcome was; it just didn’t go our way in the end. This was a good learning experience for us and I’m proud of our team regardless.”

The home team started the match off strong with a 5-1 lead, but the Huskies would find a way to tie it up at 10. From there, Saint Mary's would hold a slight two point lead to the technical timeout. Later in the set, the lead would change a number of times with both teams fighting hard both at the net and on defence. The Huskies would go ahead 24-23, but it would take a 3-0 run by the Marauders to close out the first set 26-24 for the win.

The second set saw the Marauders take it to the Huskies. With a 7-0 streak early in the first thanks to a serving run from Marauder Shannon McRobert of Whitby, Ont., McMaster was able to build up a nine point lead at 18-9. They would finish off the set strong, able to pick up balls from a number of places on the court to go ahead 2-0 in the match with a 25-14 win.

Saint Mary's was able to get revenge on the home team in the third set. Allowing McMaster to score just nine points, fifth-year Smit of Shubenacadie, N.S. extended her points tally to 16 with kills and blocks from the left side. The Huskies cruised past the Marauders in the third with a score of 25-9.

The match continued to be a rollercoaster as the Huskies took off early on with an 11-2 lead. The Marauders wouldn't start to mount a comeback until late in the set. Down 22-17, McMaster would go on a 4-0 run to get within one. Saint Mary's would pull out the win at 25-21 though, forcing a fifth set for the second time of their Championship run.

In the fifth and final match, with a 5th place game on the line, the Saint Mary's Huskies came out on fire. A serving streak of six points from right-side Ariel Smith of Yarmouth, N.S. helped the No. 5 Huskies earn a nine point lead and from there, the Huskies would oust the Marauders with a score of 15-7 and would advance themselves to a 5th place match for Sunday morning.
Consolation #1 - Queen’s vs. Trinity Western

HAMILTON, Ont. (CIS) – The No. 6 seeded Trinity Western Spartans ended the Queen's Gaels season in consecutive sets of 25-22, 25-13 and 25-23 in the first consolation match of the CIS women's volleyball championship at McMaster University on Saturday afternoon.

The result marked the end of the tournament and season for the No. 7 ranked Queen's Gaels – the OUA champion had posted its school's best finish in women's volleyball by qualifying for the CIS women's championship.

Championship web site: http://english.cis-sic.ca/championships/wvball/index

The Spartans' will play for fifth place Sunday at 11 am against the winner of the second consolation semifinal between host McMaster and the Saint Mary's Huskies.

Trinity Western will be looking to earn its third fifth place result at the CIS championship having placed fifth in 2006 and 2009.  Their previous best finish came last year with a third place result at Laval.

Royal Richardson of Rocky Mountain House, Alta., was the game's best player registering 14.5 points in the win for the Spartans.  She posted a game high 14 kills.  Setter Chelsea Hudson of Winnipeg was named the Spartans Player of the Match registering 20 assists and chipping in 5.5 points on four kills and 1.5 blocks.

“We've got a lot of pride as a team.  So it's nice to come back after losing yesterday and re-gather and regroup as a team coming out to play our game,” said Hudson. “Tomorrows our last game of the tournament… the last of my career; we need to go out and do our thing and hopefully it will work out for us.”

Kelsey Bishop of North Vancouver, B.C., was Queen's top player finishing with seven points on five kills and two assisted blocks and one ace.   She earned Player of the Match honours for the Gaels.   CIS First Team All-Canadian Natalie Gray of Oshawa, Ont., also registered seven points in the loss for Queen's.

Despite the score, the game was closely contested with the first set seeing both teams trade points.  However tied at 18-18, the Spartans earned three quick points which opened up a spread they would never relinquish to finish the Gaels at 25-22.

That momentum earned in the opening game carried the Trinity Western in the second set – which never saw the Spartans surrender a lead to the Gaels earning a 25-13 set win.

The early portions of the final set were controlled by Queen's with the Gaels taking a 16-11 lead.  But the Spartans dug back with impressive serving by Amber Brown of Three Hills, Alta., and a 7-0 run catching Queen's and moving ahead 20-17.  That was all Trinity Western needed to keep the Gaels at bay and finish Queen's and their season at 25-23

Queen's Head Coach Joely Christian-MacFarlane was disappointed that the Gaels best season came to a close, but ultimately proud of what they accomplished on the court.

“It's an emotional ending and a bit disappointing one, but I think this year has been incredible for our team,” said the fifth-year coach. “We didn't come in with the expectation of winning this year but we are did earn our way here.  I'm not going to take that away from us – it's been a fabulous year.”

HAMILTON, Ont. (March 2, 2012) - The seventh seeded Queen's Gaels kept the set scores close against the second seeded UBC Thunderbirds in their first ever CIS Championship appearance but could not find a way to push past the defending champions who beat the Gaels in three straightsets.

Set scores finished 25-19, 25-19 and 25-16 and the Gaels will now move into the consolation round with a game tomorrow at 1pm where they will take on the Trinity Western.

The Gaels were led on the day by OUA all-star Becky Billings of Ottawa who had nine kills, nine digs and one service ace. Natalie Gray of Oshawa, Ont. added 11 digs, six kills and a service ace of her own in the loss.

Today's victory was UBC's 13th in a row at the CIS tourney since a loss to Laval in the 2006 final. The T-Birds have reached the title match in each of their six CIS championship appearances over the past seven years.

UBC will look to resume its domination Saturday at 6 p.m. in the first semifinal. Its rival will be No. 3 Montreal, which downed No. 6 Trinity Western in four sets earlier on Friday.

For their part, the seventh-seeded Gaels were playing their first-ever match at the Nationals after claiming the first OUA banner in program history last week. They will face Trinity Western on the consolation side of the draw Saturday at 1 p.m.

Kyla Richey of Roberts Creek, B.C., who was named the CIS player of the year on Wednesday night, led all scorers in the win with 11.5 points on eight kills, two aces and three block assists. She also had eight digs en route to UBC game-MVP honours.

Shanice Marcelle, last year's CIS MVP and a first-team all-Canadian this season, contributed seven kills and 10 points.

“This is my fifth year so this is a special one,” commented Richey, a Canadian national team member who will take part in the Olympic qualifying tournament in late April. “It was nice to come out hard today after losing the Canada West final last weekend.”

The Thunderbirds where consistent in the early going opening up a lead in the first set. They kept their hitting errors to a minimum only committing four in the frame compared to Queen's 11. They would build their lead to 16-14 at the technical timeout and then hold on for a 25-19 win.

“I think we did a nice job starting off. Our blocking was great at the start and at various times. As the match went on we became steadier in all skill areas,” said UBC head coach Doug Reimer.

“The first round is always tough. Queen's is good team, and I was happy to see us pushed through 16.”

The Gaels put forth a solid effort battling in all three sets, but in the end the defending CIS champs proved to be too much.

“It felt good to coach in my first nationals. I feel like we trained hard and we were prepared to be here, but we need a change in attitude to come out and play Trinity Western with confidence,” commented Queen's coach Joely Christian-MacFarlane after the match.

Becky Billings led the Gaels with 10 points on nine kills and one ace. Queen's player of the match also had nine digs.

In the second set, the teams traded points until UBC went on a 5-1 run to go into the technical timeout ahead 16-14. Despite a Queen's rally, UBC prevailed 25-19.

The third frame was much like the prior two, but the Thunderbirds built a more substantial lead, up 16-9 at technical timeout, and held on to secure the match with a 25-16 set win.

“The semis are my favourite game to play in. There is a lot on the line and we need to refocus on the team at hand,” said Richey.

Reimer added, “We haven't seen Montreal all year. This is why nationals are great, it is chance to play good teams from around the country. Tomorrow will be a tough match and we will need to bring our A game.”

HAMILTON, Ont. (CIS) – The top-seeded Alberta Pandas were in tough against the host McMaster Marauders on Friday night inside the Burridge Gymnasium, but found a way to tune out the biased crowd earning a four set (25-19, 25-15, 24-26, 25-18) victory to advance to the CIS championship semifinals.

Coming off an emotional win last weekend over the UBC Thunderbirds in the Canada West finals, the Pandas will once again advance to the CIS Championship semifinals for the third consecutive season. The Pandas are no stranger to the championship playing in their 17th CIS championship in 20 seasons.

Alena Omelchenko of Almaty, Kazakhstan, led the Pandas with 17 kills and a total of 20 points, earning her Player of the Game honours. Alyssa Jones of Edmonton was also effective on the outside with 11 kills. Setter Jaki Ellis of Mississauga, Ont., contributed in a number of areas for Alberta recording 34 assists, 16 digs and six kills to help the Pandas advance to the semifinals.

"We have to play better, because we are the top seed in tournament, but McMaster played really well so we have to give them credit. The main thing is we won and we're going to keep it going to the next game. We have to play to the situation and we have to play well under pressure; we can do that.”

McMaster's left side Kailee Stock of Newmarket, Ont., had a team-high 10 kills in the four-set match and Lauren Mastroluisi of Ancaster, Ont., recently named to the 2011-12 CIS All-Rookie team, added eight more kills for the Marauders. Four players hit double-digit numbers in digs, including libero Meagan Nederveen of Dundas, Ont., with a team-high 14. Setter Amanda Weldon of Hamilton recorded 26 assists.

Calm, cool and collected, the top-seeded Pandas started the game off strong, taking a commanding 10-3 lead and headed into the technical timeout up 16-10. McMaster would be able to get within three at 19-16. Despite a biased crowd in favour of the Marauders, Alberta finished off the first set with a score of 25-19.

In the second, McMaster would rally to gain the lead at 8-7 with both teams battling hard. It would take until 14-9 for the Pandas to take off with the lead and tough serves from Alena Omelchenko would put the Marauders in trouble. Alberta would close out the set to go up 2-0 with a spread of ten points at 25-15.

The Marauders showed some character in the third set. Feeding off the crowd, McMaster lead throughout the set with spreads as large as nine points. As the Marauders took advantage of some poor serve receive from Alberta, the Pandas had their work cut out for them, needing to push hard to get out of the hole. They did, slowly working away at McMaster's lead, but the Marauders would hang on to force the fourth set, winning in extra points at 26-24.

"This is a neat place to play from a community point of view. We have lots of support, a little crazed at times... trying to get us the eighth, ninth or tenth person,” said Louks. “[Our team] is very appreciative of our fans. Just noisy and crazy - it certainly makes a big difference and a big impact on a go forward.”

Both teams battled it out in the fourth. Trying to tune out the noisy McMaster crowd, Alberta maintained a slight lead throughout the match. The Marauders would go ahead at 14-13, but it wouldn't last for long as the Pandas would head into the technical timeout up by one. After the timeout, the number one seed in the tournament went on an outstanding 8-0 run with the help of serves from Lia Stang of Provost, Alta., and would earn a berth in the semifinals with a score of 25-18.

The Pandas face-off against the No. 5 McGill Martlets at 8:00pm. Saturday night in hopes of advancing to the CIS Championship finals after two fourth place finishes in the past two seasons. McMaster will play Saint Mary's in one of two consolation semifinals at 6:00pm.

Source: McMaster Athletics