THE Capilano University men's volleyball team is heading somewhere it hasn't been for the past three years - the playoffs.
Midway through the 2011-12 season it looked like the Blues would miss their fourth consecutive postseason as they sat at the bottom of the league standings with a 2-10 record. But the Blues bounced back in the second half of the year, going 6-6 to finish the regular season at 8-16 and jump all the way to fourth place in the seven-team Pacwest league. Capilano will play fifth-place Camosun in a provincial quarterfinal Thursday at 3 p.m. at the host school, Douglas College.
Capilano started their second-half resurgence with a pair of wins over Camosun Jan. 13-14. A win Thursday would advance the Blues to Friday's semifinals where they would face a stiff test in the Vancouver Island University Mariners, ranked No. 1 in the province and No. 2 in Canada.
On the women's side the Blues finished third in the regular season, posting a record of 17-7 to slot behind 22-2 VIU and 20-4 University of the Fraser Valley in a three-team race. The Blues are 10-4 since the Christmas break but only went 1-3 against VIU and UFV on back-to-back weekends in late January and early February. The provincial battle looks like it will come down to those three teams but to get to the medal round Capilano will first have to dispatch the host team in quarterfinal play Thursday at 1 p.m. The Blues played sixth-ranked Douglas twice the final weekend of the regular season, Feb. 17-18, and beat them 3-0 in both matches.
A win over Douglas would put the Blues into a huge Friday semifinal against UFV. Not only will a berth in the provincial final be at stake but also likely a trip to the national championships. VIU, ranked No. 1 in Canada, is the host team for the national championships. As long as VIU ends up in the provincial final, whichever teams joins them there will get Pacwest's second nationals berth. UFV is ranked fourth in Canada while the Blues are ranked eighth.
Douglas College will host the tournament at its New Westminster Campus, located at 700 Royal Ave. Admission to all games will be free. More information as well as live streaming of all of the games will be available on the tournament website at www.pacwestbc.ca/2012volleyball.
