The VIU Mariners concluded the fall semester as a team on the rise.
Vancouver Island University’s women’s volleyball team won its final PacWest matches of 2017, sweeping past the Fraser Valley Cascades in straight sets both Friday and Saturday at the VIU gym. The results were noteworthy in that the Cascades are the team immediately behind the M’s in the Pacific Western Athletic Association standings. VIU crushed UFV 25-10, 25-21, 25-15 on Friday and then won Saturday by closer scores of 26-24, 25-23, 25-21.
Shane Hyde, Mariners coach, said his team’s 10-2 record is impressive considering the team has been playing without two starters. He said it’s meant extra time on the court for other players, who have responded to the challenge.
“Now that it’s happened, here we are sitting here with a way deeper team than we’ve ever seen before at this point in the season,” Hyde said. “That is the biggest part of the second half of the season, is having a full, quality group that’s ready to push.”
Had a chance to catch some volleyball tonight. VIU's women won in straight sets against UFV… pic.twitter.com/YyZRjOnzBx
— Greg Sakaki (@BulletinSports) November 25, 2017
The coming holidays don’t necessarily mean a break. The M’s will slow down for exams, but will head to San Diego right after Christmas for a tournament that Hyde said is shaping up as extremely competitive.
“We’ll play serious, serious teams and have a good judge of where the PacWest sits in the rest of the country and where we sit in terms of the rest of the country…” said the coach. “We’ll have time to obviously sightsee, and team building is a big part of it as well, but there is some serious volleyball being played and especially this year with this type of calibre of teams.”
VIU’s men’s team lost to UFV Friday, but won in straight sets Saturday, 25-18, 25-20, 25-14.
Mariners players Andrea Cankovic and Teal Prince were selected PacWest Athletes of the Week.
editor@nanaimobulletin.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter