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SPORTS.

 

Old dogs know more tricks

Alumni clean up at mens
volleyball tournament
Courtnie

MMortin
Sports Reporter

 

ast weekend kicked off the

men’s volleyball season, as
the Royals hosted a tournament
at the New Westminster campus
of Douglas College. With the
season set to kick off next week,
it was a good tune-up for the
Royals.

The first match for the hosts
was against the University of the

Fraser Valley (UFV) Cascades,
whom they controlled for the
majority of the game. Coach
Brad Hudson decided to only
play the first year players for
the tournament opener, and it
was a telative success. While
they sometimes struggled
with passing, allowing their
opponents to get back into the
game by winning the second
set, the Royals ultimately took
victory in the fourth.

The second game saw the
Royals facing their very own
alumni. Although they fought
hard, they were no competition
for the highly skilled and
seasoned veteran team. The

current crop of Royals struggled
throughout the entire match,
and all their technical systems
broke down.

“We played very hard
against the alumni. They just
have more time in the game
together. They are smarter
with the decisions they make
because they have been doing
this much longer. We couldn’t
put our systems back together,”
said First Team All-Star, Andrew
McWilliams.

The Royals lost in three
sets and walked into their game
against the Columbia Bible
College (CBC) Bearcats with a
1-1 record for the tournament.

CBC brought the heat in the
final game of the tournament.
Douglas did a great job staying
focussed and mentally tough,
but were still no match for the
Bearcats. McWilliams made
huge plays to bring the team
back within two points in both
the final two sets against CBC.
Hit after hit, spike after spike,
the intensity in the game never
let down for a second. The
Royals went diving for every
ball that came their way, and
the crowd recognized their
efforts. The victory for CBC was
in no small part due to their
impressive blocking system; no
ball came across the net without

one of their defenders getting a
hand on it. The Bearcats made
impossible plays very possible,
beating the Royals in a three-set
shutout.

After a hard-fought
tournament from all four teams,
the results showed that the
tournament had experienced
its very first three-way tie for
second place. Douglas, CBC,
and UFYV all finished with a
1-2 record. The alumni team
successfully beat each of their
opponents, placing themselves
on top of the final standings.
With preseason officially in the
books, the teams will now turn
their attention to the main event.

 

Setting up

Womens volleyball gets
revved up tor another year

Eric
Wilkins
3 Sports Editor
petip hetero
a
[: a new season for the
women’s volleyball team. A
fresh start. An opportunity to
show just what this team can
do. And the 2013-14 edition of
the Royals has no intentions of
disappointing.

Coach Kyra Iannone stated
her anticipated results for the
year clearly and concisely:

“I would say we have medal
expectations.”

Some might say such lofty
expectations are unrealistic,
seeing as last season finished
with the Royals (5-19 during
seasonal play) losing in three
sets (25-13, 25-19, 26-24) to
the Columbia Bible College
Bearcats in the quarterfinals of
the provincial championships;
but, with several players
finishing in the top-10 of various
statistical categories, and a
general positive feeling about
the group, any naysayers should
think twice. Iannone certainly
recognizes last year was never
to be a championship run, and
there are great things to come
from the group.

“Last season was good.
We built through a lot, brought
in some new recruits, and
were a fairly young team. The
girls had a lot of adversity to
fight through last year—a lot
of struggles and challenges.
And they did a really good
job of [handling it].” Iannone

continued, “Weakness last
year was probably our team
chemistry... and they needed
> transition year to get used to
pectations and systems.”

Second years Tori Trim and

ayley Flower-Ainge concurred

ith their coach’s thoughts: “]

ink we're going to do a whole
lot better than last year. Our
chemistry’s already way better
this year than it was last year
and everyone’s working harder,”
Flower-Ainge remarked, “]
thought it was okay for a
building year. I thought our
team chemistry needed some
work... [it] was kind of weird...
off the court was a lot better
than it was on the court... [This
year] we can do pretty well.”

On top of the improved
core from last season, the
squad was able to add four
outstanding high school
recruits: Madison Burt (Heritage
Woods Secondary), Kelsi
Taron (Kelowna Christian
School), Taylor Gammel
(Mount Boucherie Secondary
School), and Toni Vandenbrink
(Kalamalka Secondary).

With the recruits boasting a
host of awards and titles such as
First Team All-Stars and Team
BC experience, Iannone was

obviously excited about the fresh

blood: “We have some really big
recruits. Impact players.”

Along with the faces fresh
to post-secondary sport, the
team was able to attract a
transfer from Thompson Rivers
University, who will add some
CIS experience to the group.

Young improving team with
five solid additions? Net result
looks good.

 

Phota courtesy of Jerald Walliser

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