Marinating the Mariners > Royals face off against top level competition Davie Wong Sports Editor I: been a killer start to the PACWEST volleyball season. Amazing games, fantastic highlights, and tremendous stories have highlighted the storyboards. Although this semester’s volleyball action is near a close, there was still one final week of games to offer us some entertainment. And dare I say, they may have been the most entertaining games this year so far. Over the weekend, the Royals went over to the islands to battle the VIU Mariners in some top level volleyball. The women got the action started. They came into the match trailing the Mariners by one game. Winning both games would give them the top spot in the PRCWEST going into the break. They certainly showed the Mariners just how much they wanted to be the best with an excellent first set, taking it 25-13. The Mariners came back in the second set, tying the game with a 25-17 win. With momentum of the game on the line, the Royals came up huge, closing out their early lead and grabbing the third set with a score of 25-23. From there, it was fantastic finishing that guided the Royals to a final set win, 25-22. The win gave them the game, tying them up on the standings with the Mariners. Several Royals had a hay-day on the swing. Vania Oliveira had 15 kills, and Juliana Penner and Georgia Hurry had 13 kills each. Vicki Schley also had a big game, slamming down eight kills. The next day, the teams came back to battle once again. However, the Mariners came back with a vengeance. Three sets worth of vengeance to be precise. It was a clean sweep from the Mariners. But the numbers tell a different story. The final score was 25-21, 25-22, and 25-23, in the Mariners favor. The Royals Evenly split may have dropped three sets, but they definitely did not lose without fighting. Vania had another fantastic game, picking up 11 kills and 2 service aces. Vicki Schley picked up another eight kills, while Juliana Penner and Autumn Davidson grabbed six kills each. The loss bumps the team back in the standings. As of the start of the break, the team sits at g-3 with 18 points. They hold a firm lead on second place in the PACWEST. On the men’s side, it was always going to be a tough ride for the Royals. The Mariners are nearly unstoppable so far, only losing a single game to the Capilano Blues. The Royals have been doing all right, with a record of 5-5. Going into the game, the Royals were huge underdogs. And it didn’t take them long to find out why. A dominant first set saw the Royals drop behind, losing 25-17. But the Royals know a thing or two about fighting from behind. They came back in the second set, taking it 26-24. The third set was a mirror image of the first, with the Mariners finding a way to regain their form. They began really shutting the door on the Royals. And in the fourth set, the Mariners did exactly that, winning 25-17, and winning the game 3 sets to 1. The second game was a tough result for the Royals. The team was seemingly just outclassed by the Mariners. They dropped three straight sets to the Mariners, with the final scores on the game being 25-17, 25-18, and 25-13. The tough weekend put a bit of a damper on the men’s otherwise pretty decent split. The team ends the half with a record of 5-7, sitting at 5th with 10 points. The danger of missing playoffs isn’t too relevant, as only one team misses this year. That team at the moment is the CBC Bearcats, who sit at the bottom with a record of o-12. The winter break should be good for the team, as many will be recouping from an already tough first semester. Photograph by Analyn Cuarto > Men’s basketball first split review Davie Wong Sports Editor I been a pretty balanced start for the Douglas College Royals men’s basketball team. The men are off to a 3-3 start to the season, and have put in some good performances to close out the year. It was a bumpy start for the team, no one can argue that. A tough loss in their home opener against the Capilano Blues left a sour taste in the mouth of the players. They tried their best to bounce back against the VIU Mariners, but fell short of overtaking them. It wasn’t until the next game that the men tasted victory. A 72-68 win over the Camosun Chargers gave the team their first win of the season and gave them a much needed PACWEST), and averages 32.8 minutes a game for the Royals (4th highest in the PACWEST). A scoring threat from anywhere on the court, Grant Campbell is one player that the team has really relied on to be a workhorse. The other player the team has relied on has been Malcolm Mensah. Mensah has been a staple in the Royals’ defensive line. He is averaging 7.2 rebounds a game (5th best in PACWEST), and has 6 blocks on the year (2nd best in PACWEST). Mensah is also a key offensive piece for the Royals, who get 14.8 points (oth best in PACWEST) out of their big man. A player that has been a somewhat surprise for the team this year is Lambert Pajayon. The rookie has managed to put up some pretty big Da c S Lv > oO a > a a o c a ° 2 ° ou. shot in the arm. The adrenaline from the game against the Chargers carried over to their next game against the Columbia Bible College (CBC) Bearcats. It was a scrappy game, but the Royals came out on top to push themselves to .500. They faced off against yet another top talent PACWEST rival in the Langara Falcons the week after. The Falcons were flying too high for the Royals to catch, and they were handed a tough 88-60 loss. For their last game of the semester, the team faced off against the Quest Kermodes, who were about on par with the Royals. In their most convincing game yet, they thrashed the Kermodes in a 79-64 win. The win brought them back to the elusive .500, and brought their record to 3-3. Highlighting the Royals line-up has to be their captains, Grant Campbell and Malcolm Mensah. Let’s start with Campbell. Grant has been phenomenal for the Royals. His actual numbers may be a tad inflated because he’s only played five out of the six games for the Royals (he missed a game due to an undisclosed reason), but his averages all match out. Campbell averages 20 points per game (5th best in PACWEST), and 3 blocks (ioth best in the PACWEST), 6.3 rebounds a game (11th best in points for the Royals—14.8 points a game type points. That’s as good as Malcolm, with about five minutes less game time on average. Overall, the team has some fantastic pieces, and it’s no surprise that they’ve gotten to where they have to end the semester. Their current record of 3-3 is a huge improvement on last year’s 1-5. If the team continues improving, it’s a wonder where they will be when the playoffs come around.