VIDEO: MEN'S VOLLEYBALL HOSTS THOMPSON RIVERS IN OPENING ROUND OF PLAYOFFS
MEN’S VOLLEYBALL
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2011
PLAYOFF PREVIEW
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MEN'S VOLLEYBALL HOSTS THOMPSON RIVERS IN OPENING ROUND OF PLAYOFFS
LANGLEY, British Columbia - The No. 4 Trinity Western men's volleyball team (13-5) will host the No. 8 Thompson Rivers WolfPack (9-9) in the opening round of the Canada West playoffs. The winner of the best-of-three series will travel to Edmonton to play in the Canada West Final Four.
Game times are Thursday and Friday at 8:00 p.m. and Saturday, if necessary, at 7:00 p.m. at the Langley Events Centre.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE GAME LIVE
SPARTANS (13-5)
CIS Ranking: 4th
Canada West Standing: 3rd
Last Week: Manitoba 3-1 W, 3-0 W
Streak: 2 Wins
2009-10 CW Record: 11-7, 4th
2010 CW Playoffs: 1-1, 2nd
2010 CIS Tournament: 2-1, 2nd
Last CW Title: 2007
Last CIS Title: 2006
TWU Lifetime vs TRU: 12-8
The Trinity Western Spartans come into this weekend looking for a little redemption.
Two years ago, the Spartans finished the season with an 11-7 record and found themselves sitting in third place in the Canada West standings, behind Alberta and Calgary, and preparing to host the sixth-seeded Thompson Rivers WolfPack. Coincidentally, an identical situation to this year.
And, like this year, the Spartans had split with TRU at home in their two-game regular season series.
But, playing in their final playoff series at the campus-based David E. Enarson Gymnasium, the Spartans lost a heart-breaking three-set match to the WolfPack and saw their season end far sooner than they had hoped.
And with six players from that Spartans team – Marc Howatson, Josh Doornenbal, Rudy Verhoeff, Ben Ball, Jarrod Offereins and Mikiah Schalk – playing prominent roles with Trinity Western’s current rendition, this weekend’s tilt with the WolfPack provides a chance to make good on past mistakes.
Entering this weekend, the Spartans are a confident group after last weekend knocking off the No. 5 ranked Manitoba Bisons on back-to-back nights. After dropping the first set of the weekend series, the Spartans went on to win the next six in a row to secure third place and a playoff rematch with TRU.
The Spartans had another fairly typical weekend for this year’s team as they out-blocked and out-served the Bisons into submission. Over the two night combined, TWU had 24.5 team blocks to Manitoba’s 12.5 and had 15 service aces to Manitoba’s seven.
Trinity Western was led on the block by Canada West Male Athlete of the Week Lucas Van Berkel, who had 11 blocks and, in doing so, set a conference record by averaging 1.60 blocks per set all season. As for their serving prowess, it was Marc Howatson with five and Mikiah Schalk with three leading the way for TWU.
When the Spartans met the WolfPack in the second weekend of the year, the teams split back-to-back five set matches. Thompson Rivers won on Friday 3-2 (19-25, 26-24, 23-25, 25-19, 15-13) and TWU won Saturday 3-2 (21-25, 26-24, 25-19, 24-26, 17-15).
WOLFPACK (9-9)
CIS Ranking: 8th
Canada West Standing: 6th
Last Week: UBC 3-2 W, 3-0 W
Streak: 4 Wins
2009-10 CW Record: 10-8, 6th
2010 CW Playoffs: 2-2, 4th
2010 CIS Tournament: 1-2
Last CW Title: N/A
Last CIS Title: N/A
TRU Lifetime vs TWU: 8-12
The WolfPack have been here before. They have come to Trinity Western as an underdog for a best-of-three playoff series. And they have left with a victory. Two years ago that happened. And TRU is hoping it can resurrect the WolfPack circa 2009, as it attempts its quest to qualify for the CIS Championship for the fourth year in a row.
While the WolfPack don’t have the likes of Gord Perrin and Robin Schoebel anymore – a dual threat that helped lead TRU to three straight national championship appearances (2008, 2009 and 2010) and also combined for 102 kills in that 2009 playoff series win over TWU – they have discovered a few golden nuggets this year in players like Ryan Talsma, Aleks Saddlemyer and freshman Casey Knight to surround the heavy-hitting Kevin Tillie.
And entering this weekend’s tilt with Trinity Western, TRU is on a bit of a roll as they have won four games in a row, including back-to-back wins over UBC to clinch sixth place and avoid travelling to Calgary for the opening round of the playoffs.
On the first night against UBC last weekend, it was another strong night from Tillie who finished with 24 kills, six digs and four blocks. In the second game, the WolfPack jumped out to a quick start and was able to give the French outside hitter a well-deserved rest before the playoffs.
While Tillie is the focal point of the Thompson Rivers attack – he is second in Canada West with 4.41 kills per game – the Pat Hennelly coached WolfPack has done well of late in spreading out the attack and providing fits for the opposition who chooses to solely defend Tillie.
Thompson Rivers has seven players who averaged at least 1.45 kills per set, with Talsma following Tillies’ 300 kills with 117 of his own, while Joel Caschetto finished with 91 kills and Saddlemyer had 90.
The WolfPack has also held its opponents to a hitting percentage of just 20.0 per cent (4th in Canada West) and will need to continue to put up good defensive numbers against a TWU team that averaged a hitting percentage of 26.1 per cent all year.
In their series with TWU early in the year, Tillie had 49 kills in two games and setter Colin Carson averaged 52 assists in the weekend split.
-TW-
Last Updated: 2011-02-16
Email: Mark.Janzen@twu.ca