March 4 Spartans Down…But Not Out

Men’s Volleyball (CIS Semi-Final)
Saturday, March 4, 2006
TWU Spartans (3) vs. the University of Manitoba Bisons (2)
(25-20, 24-26, 21-25, 25-23, 15-11)

Spartans Down...But Not Out
TWU stuns Manitoba with late rally to win 3-2

HAMILTON, Ontario – Stel-uary. That’s the nick name that the TWU team has given fourth year outside hitter Jeff Stel. The name comes from they way Stel performs in the month of March during the CIS national championships. For the Spartans when calendar hits March 1st, the month is not March it is Stel-uary. Last year Stel earned a CIS championship all-star and a clip on Sportsnet, and if there was any doubt that the name was not well deserved it was put to rest by Stel’s amazing performance in Saturday’s 3-2 (25-20, 24-26, 21-25, 25-23, 15-11) CIS national championship semi-final win over the University of Manitoba.

Stel finished with 19 kills (one off of his career best 20 kills) and hit 45%, but it was his ability to inspire his team when they were trailing 2-1 in sets and 19-13 in the fourth. Stel started pounding the ball with the same force that is displayed during the no-blocking warm up. The performance got the Spartans back into the match and before the Bisons knew what hit them their six point lead had turned into a one point deficit, 21-20. Fully energized the rest of the Spartans closed out the set 25-23.

Manitoba never recovered as the Spartans took the fifth set 15-11 to earn a spot in Sunday’s Gold Medal rematch with the University of Alberta. The match will be broadcast live on TSN and TWU’s Spartan Web Radio at www.spartanwebradio.ca.

In the first set Manitoba had an early 6-5 lead. But the Spartans gradually gained momentum and leading 16-13 at the 2nd technical timeout, a Chris Meehan (Clearwater, BC) ace and 4 blocks, 2 of them solo by Josh Howatson (Victoria, BC) had the Bison’s trailing 20-16.  A Nathan Toews (East St. Paul, MB) kill and Manitoba error to finished the set, as TWU won 25-20.

The 2nd set belonged to the Bison’s Drew Venables (Kamloops, BC), who converted his first of 7 kills in the game from a broken play, sending the game into its first technical timeout. Manitoba led 8-6. With the game tied at 12, Manitoba called a timeout that did nothing to stop the Spartan momentum. Trailing 16-14, Venables took the game into his hands with 3 spectacular digs in one rally, won the attack line but, it was all for not. The very next play saw Bison’s Matt Balchin (Victoria, BC) make a stuff block with only his left hand, keeping TWU within one. Tied at 22-22, Toews block gave Manitoba the lead and TWU errors gave them the set, 26-24.

Following a rally that saw dig after dig by Venables and Balchin out jousting Rogalsky, the Bisons led 3-2, a lead they would not let slip away. Trinity Western seemed to lose focus, making unforced error after unforced error putting them behind, 20-13. Blocking from Howatson and hitting from Jeff Stel (Langley, BC) brought the Spartans as close as they would come before making two service errors and once again giving the set to the Bisons, 25-21.

For the 3rd straight set Trinity Western found themselves trailing after the first technical timeout, a disadvantage that would grow to 10-7 and 11-7 following a Toon Van Lankvelt (Rivers, MB) ace. Van Lankvelt kept the Manitoba lead at four heading into the second technical timeout, using the Spartan block for a point, 16-12. Unfortunately for the Bisons, Van Lankvelt made a service error at 19-13 to let Trinity Western back into the contest. Rogalsky found the back corner of the court twice to tie the game at 20-20 before the Spartans Howatson unleashed his killer serve taking any momentum that Manitoba had. Serving errors from both teams had Trinity Western leading 24-23 when Meehan took the ball from Howatson’s hands and put a dent in the floor, a 25-23 win with the game going to a 5th set.

A Bisons’ service error gave TWU the 8-6 lead at the changeover put the ball in Rogalsky’s hands. An ace from Rogalsky and a 3 point deficit forced Manitoba to call a timeout at 9-6. Trailing 12-7, Manitoba hit down the line just out, prompting a second timeout call. The Spartans used a kill from Stel and a block from Meehan to close within one point of a Championship game appearance. Failing to convert on three straight game points, Trinity Western received a present in the form of Josh Klassen’s (Winnipeg, MB) service error, ending the game.

Stel led all players with 19 kills, as Howatson directed the Spartan offence with 47 assists. Defensively Jeff Lindemulder (Calgary, AB) had a game high 20 digs.

Venables, Player of the Game for Manitoba, had 12 digs and 45 assists, while Balchin recorded 15 kills.

QUICKIE STAT LEADERS

Trinity Western
Kills: Jeff Stel (19)
Blocks: Josh Howatson (2 solo and 4 assisted)
Digs: Jeff Lindemulder (20)
Assists: Josh Howatson (47)

Player of the game: Jeff Stel

Manitoba
Kills: Matt Balchin (15)
Blocks: Matt Balchin (3 solo and 5 assisted), Toon Van Lankvelt (3 solo and 1 assisted)
Digs: Trevor Froese (12) and Drew Venables (12)
Assists: Drew Venables (45)

Player of the game: Drew Venables

SEEDING, SCHEDULE & RESULTS (all times LOCAL / EST)

1.  Alberta Golden Bears (Canada West champions / 19-1 regular season, 2-0 playoffs)
2. Trinity Western Spartans (CW finalists / 16-4 regular season, 3-1 playoffs)
3. Manitoba Bisons (CW bronze medalists / 13-7 regular season, 3-1 playoffs)
4. Saskatchewan Huskies (CW semi-finalists / 15-5 regular season, 0-2 playoffs)
5. Dalhousie Tigers (AUS champions / 19-1 regular season, 1-0 playoffs)
6. Laval Rouge et Or (QSSF champions / 15-5 regular season, 2-1 playoffs)
7. Queen's Golden Gaels (OUA champions / 16-4 regular season, 3-0 playoffs)
8.  McMaster Marauders (OUA semi-finalists / 15-5 regular season, 1-1 playoffs)

Friday, March 3

Quarter-final #1: Manitoba 3, Laval 0 (25-9, 25-23, 28-26)
Quarter-final #2: Trinity Western 3, Queen’s 0 (25-17, 25-12, 25-23)
Quarter-final #3: Dalhousie 3, Saskatchewan 0 (25-21, 25-19, 25-23)
Quarter-final #4: Alberta 3, McMaster 1 (23-25, 25-16, 25-23, 25-16)

Saturday, March 4

13:00 Consolation #1: Queen’s 3 Laval 2 (25-22, 25-19, 22-25, 21-25, 15-11
15:00 Consolation #2: 3 McMaster Saskatchewan 0 (25-16, 25-23, 25-23)
18:00 Semi-final #1: Trinity Western 3 Manitoba 2 (25-20, 24-26, 21-25, 25-23, 15-11)
Semi-final #2: Alberta 3, Dalhousie 1 (24-26, 25-11,25-22,25-16)

Sunday, March 5

11:00 5th place: No. 8 McMaster vs. No. 7 Queen's
13:00 Bronze medal: No. 5 Dalhousie vs. No. 3 Manitoba
16:00 Championship final (live on TSN): No. 2 Trinity Western vs. No. 1 Alberta

-TW-

Last Updated: 2009-02-16
Author: Scott Stewart
Email: ssstew@twu.ca