Gold Medal Match: VIU Mariners 3, The King’s Eagles 0
For the second consecutive season, the Vancouver Island University Mariners are Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) champions. The Mariners defeated The King’s University Eagles 3-0 in the gold medal match, the set scores in the contest were 25-18, 25-11, 26-16.
The Mariners dominated the contest from the opening serve, relying on their precise passing game and dominant offensive attack. VIU was paced by CCAA All-Canadian outside hitter Karoline Tormena, who finished with 14 kills, two blocks, and eight digs. Tormena was named the Mariners 4Imprint Player of the Match for her performance.
Defensively the Mariners were led by second year outside hitter Danielle Groenendijk, who finished with 13 digs and 16 kills. Middle Blocker Taylor Wickson had eight kills and three blocks.
The King’s were led by Jayden Bontkes who had 10 kills and 13 digs while Avery Theune trailed right behind her teammate with nine kills.
Chantal Cummings of the Mariners was named tournament Most Valuable Player.
Bronze Medal Match: Fanshawe Falcons 3, Briercrest Clippers 0
The bronze medal match featured two teams who had to fight a little harder to get there. Both the Briercrest Clippers and the Fanshawe Falcons started off their tournaments on Thursday night with a loss, automatically putting them in a more difficult position to medal.
By losing their first games of the tournament, both teams were forced to win two straight or else they were eliminated from a shot at bringing home a CCAA medal. Both teams handled the pressure, won the bronze quarter-final and semi-final matches and found themselves paired up with some hardware on the line.
Fanshawe controlled the game early and didn’t take their foot off the gas, cruising to a 3-0 (25-19, 25-18, 25-22) win to clinch the bronze medal.
Janelle Albert showed why she was voted as the CCAA Player of the Year as she turned it on against Briercrest in the most important match of the tournament for her team. She had 15 kills in just three sets on a .448 kill percentage. Meghan Morrelli continued her strong tournament as she complimented Albert’s game with 13 kills herself.
The Falcons setter, Katie Stewart, who stepped into the position due to an injury, played phenomenally, registering 31 assists.
For the Clippers, Becky Garner led the team with 11 kills while starting setter Ashley Erickson had 24 assists.
The Falcons picked up their first CCAA Women’s Volleyball medal in program history with the win.
Match 11: Niagara Knights 3, MSVU Mystics 1
The host Niagara Knights defeated the MSVU Mystics in four sets (16-25, 25-23, 25-17, 30-28) in the placement game.Both teams were playing in their third and final game of the tournament to determine the 7th and 8th place finishes after losing their opening two matches of the weekend.
Natasha Desjardins was the Knights leader offensively, finishing the match with 13 kills on a .391 kill percentage to pick up the Knights’ 4Imprint Player of the Match award. Jordan Koslowski added 13 kills of her own while also registering five service aces. Setter Montanna Taylor had 20 assists in the win.
On the Mystics side of the net, setter Jaylene Fraser won the 4Imprint Player of the Match award finishing with 21 assists. All-Canadian Madison Urquhart led her team with 13 kills while adding five service aces and 10 digs .
Match 10: Fanshawe Falcons 3, Cavaliers de Bois-de-Boulogne 1
The second match of the day saw the Fanshawe Falcons and the Bois-de-Boulogne Cavaliers battle it out for the second and final spot in the bronze medal match. The OCAA champs finished off the RSEQ champs in four sets (25-11, 30-28, 21-25, 26-24) to secure the shot at a medal.
In this match the Falcons took an important win in the first set before the Cavaliers attempted to tie things up at one each. The second set was the most exciting of the match as we needed several extra points to decide it as the Falcons would win it 30-28. Bois-de-Boulogne would win the third but couldn't complete the comeback as they dropped another exciting fourth set, this time 26-24.
CCAA Player of the Year Janelle Albert and Meghan Morelli teamed up to take down their opponents as they finished with 19 and 18 kills, respectively. Danielle Grasman was the third and final piece to the winning puzzle as she registered 12 kills of her own, winning the 4Imprint Player of the Match in the process.
Victoria Iannotti won the 4Imprint Player of the Match for the Cavaliers with eight kills and nine digs while setter Oceane Couturier had 33 assists.
Match 9: Briercrest Clippers 3, Douglas Royals 1
The first bronze semi-final match of the day saw the Briercrest Clippers take on the Douglas Royals. In the end, it was the Clippers who came away with the win as they took down the Royals in four sets (25-19, 25-18, 22-25, 26-24).
Becky Garner and the rest of the Caronport, Saskatchewan based Clippers came out firing as they jumped out to an early 2-0 lead. Garner finished with 19 kills in this one as the Clippers fed her the ball all match long. She had 60 attack attempts and just two attack errors.
Earning the 4Imprint Player of the Match was outside hitter Mia Harder. The second-year attacker had 13 kills and 11 digs. Veteran Setter Ashley Erickson finished with 38 assists.
The story of the match for the Royals was the outstanding play of Trisha He. The rookie starting Libero was diving all over the court to make incredible digs all match long. He finished the match with 17 digs. Vania Oliveira led Douglas with 13 kills while also adding three service aces and 14 digs.