The Capilano Blues women’s volleyball team came away from last weekend’s PacWest championship with bronze, narrowly missing out on the big prizes but climbing the podium for the second straight season.
The Blues finished second in regular season play to earn a bye into the provincial semifinals played Friday at Camosun College. There they faced the No. 3 Vancouver Island University Mariners in what was a rematch of last year’s provincial final. And it was the Mariners again who came out on top, earning a spot in the PacWest final and a berth in the national championships in a slugfest of a five-set win over the Blues.
“I would be more disappointed if we didn’t battle, but we battled,” said Capilano head coach Cal Wohlford. “It was an unbelievable game.”
The Mariners jumped out to 1-0 and 2-1 set leads but the Blues kept fighting back to force a fifth. It was a matchup of contrasting styles, said Wohlford.
“We were the best blocking team, they made some unreal digs and offensively both teams were really strong,” he said. In the fifth set the Blues led 8-6 at the switch but just couldn’t hold on. VIU finished with a 25-20, 17-25, 25-18, 22-25, 15-11 win.
“A couple of little plays here and there, you lose some momentum,” Wohlford said of the deciding moments in the fifth set. “In a normal game we would have had a chance to fight back but it’s only to 15 points — if you don’t respond right away you can lose it fairly easy. That’s kind of what happened.”
Libero Kelsey Johnson led the VIU defensive crew with 23 digs to earn player of the match honours for the Mariners. Right-side hitter Kira Sutcliffe earned the honour for Capilano with 20 kills, six stuff blocks, one ace and six digs.
The Blues bounced back from their disappointing loss one day later, smashing the College of the Rockies Avalanche 25-16, 25-14, 25-19 to win bronze.
“We were pretty disappointed but everybody responded and everybody wanted to win a medal. We got everybody in and we did it in good fashion,” said Wohlford, adding that he was happy to see his team play up to its potential in victory and in defeat. “We won pretty much in the same style that we lost in. . . . We were very offensive, our blocking was really strong. We performed both matches, which I think is important. No matter if you win or lose, every game you play in you’re giving it your best. I felt that we did that — we were playing our game.”
Rookie middle blocker Danae Shephard led the way for the Blues in the bronze medal game, earning player of the match honours with four kills, five blocks and two aces.
Wohlford was hoping to make a return trip to the national championships — the team finished fifth last year — but it’s always tough to get out of the loaded PacWest conference.
“Do we deserve to be at nationals? Absolutely,” said Wohlford. “We’re one of the top teams. If you put those four teams together on another weekend the outcome could be different. But that’s what sports is all about. What we try to do is peak at the right time and we were right there.”
The Blues men were also in action at the provincial championships and also ended up on the losing side of a tough five set match. The sixth-seeded Blues were in upset mode against the third-ranked VIU, taking the first two sets to push the Mariners to the brink. But VIU fought back, winning the final three sets, including an intense 16-14 victory in the fifth. Capilano’s Brendan Cairns had a monster game, posting 25 kills, a block and an ace to earn player of the match honours for the Blues
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Prior to the provincial championship tournament Sutcliffe was named the PacWest player of the year. In regular season action she finished third in the league in total offence, her average of 3.25 kills per set placed her fourth in the league. She also finished 14th in the league in blocks with an average of 0.39 per set.
“All year everybody has been watching her progress and get better,” said Wohlford after the championship tournament. “She’s a threat out there and this weekend she showed it. It’s easy for people to put the label on you but you have to step up and perform, and she did that this weekend.”
Sutcliffe also earned first-team PacWest all-star status and was named an all-star at provincials. Capilano third-year setter Sarah Hughes from Burnaby was also honoured, earning a spot on the second all-star team, while Shephard made the PacWest all-rookie team.
On the men’s side Cairns, an outside hitter from Grande Pointe, Man., was Capilano’s sole representative on the awards sheet, earning a spot on the PacWest all-rookie team.
