For the first time in its history, the College of the Rockies Avalanche are heading to Nationals.
The Men’s Volleyball team couldn’t get past the Douglas Royals in the Gold medal match, in Saturday’s PACWEST championships, held Vancouver Island University. The Royals maintained the momentum throughout their four-set victory, and the Avalanche ended up with silver — also a first.
Both the Royals and Avalanche will represent the PACWEST in two weeks at the CCAA national championship in Niverville, Manitoba. The Royals are the Conference seed while the Avalanche captured a wildcard berth.
In Saturday’s match, the Royals needed extra points to win the first set 26-24. The Ads fought back in the second, and evened the match 1-1 with a 25-20 win.
But the Royals seized the momentum in the third, with a spread out attack and defence that was able to thwart the Avs’ star hitter Diego Policarpo, and win 25-14.
In the fourth the Royals continued to pour it on playing strong defence at the net and finished off the Avs with a 25-21 victory to capture their first PACWEST title since 2014.
On Friday, the Avalanche took the first semi-final with a 4-1 victory over the Camosun Charges, while the Royals upset the second-seeded VIU Mariners, the tournament hosts. The Mariners went on to take Bronze.
Following the gold medal match the tournament All-Stars were announced:
• Kris La Guardia - Camosun
• Owen Dyck - VIU
• Ethan Braam - COTR
• Diego Policarpo - COTR
• Niko Robbles - Douglas
• Elijah Kim - Douglas
On the Women’s side, the Vanouver Island University Mariners are PACWEST champions. The Camosun Chargers took Silver, while the Capilano Blues took Bronze over the Columbia Bible College Bearcats.
The Mariners will now represent the PACWEST at the CCAA national championship in two weeks in Durham, Ontario.
With files from pacwest.ca
