SPARTANS IN TOUGH AGAINST ROGUE ET OR

Marc Howatson and the Faithful

MEN’S VOLLEYBALL (CIS CHAMPIONSHIP)
FRIDAY, MARCH 12, 2010
TWU SPARTANS – UNIVERSITE LAVAL ROGUE ET OR
PREVIEW

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TWU AND LAVAL MATCH UP IN CIS SEMI-FINAL

KAMLOOPS, British Columbia – The No. 7 Trinity Western University Spartans will have an uphill battle Saturday night in hopes to make it to Sunday’s CIS men’s volleyball gold medal match. In order for the Spartans to make it to the CIS final they will have to get past the top ranked and undefeated Universite Laval Rogue et Or.

The Spartans made it to the semi-final with a solid 3-0 (25-19, 25-23, 25-19) win over the Queens University Gaels Friday afternoon, while the Rogue et Or dispatched with the Montreal Carbines 3-0 (25-20, 25-20,25-18) to advance to the semi-final. The two teams will match up Saturday night at 6 p.m. in first semi-final match of the night, with Alberta and Calgary squaring off in the second match.

With their quarter final win Laval extended their season long winning streak to 19-0. The last time that the Rogue et Or lost in a conference or play-off match was 3-0 (25-20, 25-22, 25-17) to the University of Alberta in last year CIS gold medal match. Karl De Granpré, who was selected as the FQSE Outstanding Player and CIS first team All-Canadian, leads the way for the Rogue et Or. Statistically, the 6’4’’ athlete finished first in scoring with 224 kills, and second in scoring average at 4.07 per game, an attacking efficiency percentage of 42 percent. The team captain accumulated 17 aces, giving him second place behind his teammate and fellow All-Canadian Frédéric Desbiens (23) and Frédéric Mondou, who was named FQSE Rookie of the Year. The native of Verchères came into the Laval squad in January and at mid-season he was at 32 percent attacking efficiency. Rouge et Or Captain De Grandpré received the same award in 2008.

The Rogue et Or, who have been to 13 straight CIS championships, are looking for a return trip to the title match and their fourth title win since 1994. While the Spartans will be looking to advance to their third championship final, and their first title since they won it all in 2006.

The Spartans, who finished fourth in Canada West in league play and second overall, improved their overall record to 15-9 with Friday’s win. TWU who is without an All-Canadian are led by leftside and Canada West first team All-Star Steven Marshall who was fourth in kills at 3.69 per game, seventh in digs with 2.26 digs per game and eighth in aces with 0.25 aces per game over the Canada West season and Marc Howatson who was 10th in digs with 1.97 digs per game, while hitting 2.63 kills per game in Canada West. Defensively in the back court the Spartans are led by libero Jarrod Offereins who was sixth in digs with 2.29 digs per game in Canada West, while at the net Canada West second team All-Star Josh Doornenbal, who was sixth in hitting at 39.2 percent, fifth in blocks with 1.08 blocks per game, leads the Spartans.

The last time the Spartans and Rogue et Or met was on Jan. 3, 2008 when Laval defeated TWU 3-0 (25-20, 25-21, 26-24) at the TRU Tournament in Kamloops, B.C. Laval and TWU have met once in CIS championship play when the Spartans won 3-1 (25-21, 25-22, 22-25, 25-23) on March 5, 2004 on Laval’s home court in Quebec City.

For the Spartans to pull off the upset and hand the Rogue et Or their first loss of the season TWU will have to rely on all their offensive and defensive tools in order to prevail.

The winner will advance to the CIS championship match on Sunday afternoon at 6 p.m., while the loser will play in the bronze medal match at 3 p.m.

The matches can be seen live on SSN at http://www.ssncanada.ca/

Championship website (including complete stats): http://english.cis-sic.ca/championships/mvball

-TW-

Last Updated: 2010-03-13
Author: Scott Stewart
Email: ssstew@twu.ca