VIU volleyball teams are ranked No. 1 and have home-court advantage, but everything else at provincials this weekend will be unpredictable.
The men’s and women’s volleyball teams host the PacWest championships, starting today (Feb. 23) at 1 p.m. at the Vancouver Island University gym. Both Mariners teams have byes into tomorrow’s semifinals.
Shane Hyde, coach of the VIU women, said he can’t foresee what sort of impact home court will have.
“It could end up being an extremely positive thing because it’s obviously a comfort level for us. It’s our gym, we practise in here so often through the year, everything’s home to us. But on the other side of that, there is always added pressure because you’re expected to do well.”
VIU’s women play their semifinal Friday at 6 p.m.; the VIU men play at 8 p.m.
On Saturday, the women’s championship match is at 6 p.m. and the men’s gold-medal match goes at 8 p.m.
In other VIU volleyball news, the PacWest year-end awards were announced this week and the Mariners had numerous winners. M's athletes Megan Rosenlund and Braydon Brouwer were chosen PacWest Player of the Year in their leagues. Also, Rosenlund and Mikayla Wagner are first-team all-stars, Chantal Cumming is a second-team all-star and Sadie Wilson made the all-rookie team. For the M's men, Brouwer and Zach Grigg are first-team all-stars, Wayne Woyciehouski is a second-team all-star and Jeff Webb is a member of the all-rookie team. Abe Avender is Coach of the Year.
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