Viarch 4 1998

 

ears for one team and cheers for
another, Saturday marked a BCAA
championship for the Douglas College
men’s volleyball team and a silver effort
for the women’s team. The tournament
hosted by Okanagan University College
UC) in Kelowna, who brought a strong home
bwd to cheer their teams and heckle ours, When
dust had finally cleared the men had a hotly
Intested championship and the women were out-
nyed to silver.
‘The men had a very strong start to the tourna-
nt, taking first placement in the round robin.
hey quickly overcame the Camosun Chargers
ee games to one. Combined with their excellent
acement in the round robin, the Royals appeared
be set for an easy walk to the gold, but the
iversity College of the Cariboo (UCC) Sun
ils had other plans.
e first game of the gold medal match was a
ory for the Sun Devils. Douglas failed to
etrate the excellent blocking of UCC. Consist-
in the Royals’ play was another problem
ding to the 12 to 15 loss.
Douglas initially floundered in the second
e—UCC held a 4 point lead, but our team
led it together to win 15 to 9. The game was
ed with fierce rallies and contained some of
best playing in the entire match.
Douglas took the third game as well, but again

 

Douglas Men bring home
Provincial gold...again

_ Story and ph

suffered from an initial lack of cohesion. Fortu-
nately, the spiking ability of Ken Kleindienst and
the all around playing ability of Ken Kilpatrick
carried Douglas back to overtake and then beat the
Sun Devils.

With the breathing room that being one game
ahead of their opponents afforded them, it seemed
clear the Royals didn’t want the fourth game
enough. Plays by Douglas were relaxed in compari-
son to their previous games and they were deserv-
edly trounced by the Sun Devils 7 to 15.

The championship was riding on the fifth game
and both teams wanted it. Douglas snapped out of
their former slumber to attack the Sun Devils with
remarkable tenacity. Not to be outdone, UCC
counterattacked, managing a 12 to 8 lead early on.
The Royals’ moral seemed close to breaking, but
didn't, largely due to the encouragement of Ken
Kilpatrick as he pushed his team onward. The
Royals tied up the game with a score of 15 to 15. It
was do or die and both teams met the pressure very
well, fighting with unnatural vigour. The game
stretched on, with neither side managing to gain’
the 2 point lead required to take the match.
Douglas finally took it with a score of 26 to 24.

There are few criticisms to be made of the men’s
play during the match. There is a large criticism to
be made of their behaviour before their match
began, though. The men’s championship was
played immediately after the women’s. The women

Climbing walls and kicking butt since 1976

were down

two games to
one and trailing
by 3 points. The

women were attempting to
come back when the men
began to tape up their joints
and warm up for their game in
full view of the women. This was

demoralizing to the women’s team and
demonstrated a complete lack of support

from the men for their fellow Douglas athletes.

he women’s silver effort just before the men’s

match was against OUC and in front of a

very rambunctious home team crowd. The
women fought OUC with all the energy they could
muster, but unfortunately as individuals not as a
team. A continual image was that of an OUC spike
hitting an undefended corner for a point, particu-
larly in the first two games of the match. As Becki
Kosinski pointed out, “It wasn’t anyone, we just
played as individuals and not as a team.”

Lack of communication between players
exacerbated the situation and gave OUC easy wins
in the first two games of the match.

What appeared to be a fatal flaw in the Douglas
plan was coach Susan Sharp’s lack of substitutions.
Only two players were subbed into the match and
only for a single brief period each. The players who

  
  

 

Driving
him up the

wall
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Referendum results - page 3

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were left on the
floor for the entire match
were visibly fatigued from the end of the

  
  

second game onwards. It is likely that the
team could have taken the match to five
games and possibly even won, had the
players been properly rotated to afford
them a rest. Sharp’s dependence upon a
few key players was a self defeating one
and hopefully she will not repeat this
mistake in the future.

The best game of the match was the third, when
Douglas came on strongly to win 15 to 2. Douglas
was finally playing as a team, communicating well
and fighting with heart. OUC was almost left
standing still during the game, definitively
outplayed by Douglas. Sharp credited their
comeback to laying the situation down for the
team, saying “I told them this was it, stop playing
like individuals and play like a team.”

Whatever Douglas had brought into the third
game, they lost it in the fourth. OUC wanted the
championship and came on hard. Notable was the
resolve of Vesna Rukavina, who seemed to be a
tremendous source of moral for the Royals when
OUC held a four point lead. Resolve doesn’t win
championships unfortunately, it only gives you a
chance. Douglas didn’t make that chance a gold
one in what turned into an emotional ending for
the women.