Blues Meet Royals

#1 Capilano Blues vs. #4 Douglas Royals – Friday February 27, 5:30pm | WATCH HERE

The top ranked team in the CCAA, the Capilano Blues open their first playoff match on Friday night in a PACWEST semi-final against the gritty Douglas Royals who are hungry to knock off the top seed.

On paper, this is a “David vs. Goliath” match up after the Blues (19-1) owned the Royals (7-13) during the regular season winning all four matches including a weekend sweep in early January.   That said, two of the matches went the distance with Blues winning both times in the fifth set 17-15 and 15-10.

Coming into the playoffs the Blues won six straight, three courtesy of a three-set sweep and are litter with veteran talent.  Abby Betker and Nnya Mbaoma give them a formidable 1-2 punch from the outside with 282 and 259 kills between the two of them.  Both athletes have had sparkling collegiate careers, with Mbaoma in her fifth and final. She’s joined by fellow fifth year seniors Sibby Bos, Anna Liniewski, Aimee Tilley and Annika Kuznik.  Fourth year Natalie Rourke has also been a major factor, but on the defensive side leading the Conference with 61 blocks.  This veteran group captured the #1 seed in the PACWEST for the first time since in the 1985-86 Blues. 

With the weekend approaching, the Royals find themselves as the underdogs coming into the postseason winning two of their final three matches to clinch the final playoff spot. They have played the Blues well this season and will need to play a near perfect match to take down the top seed.  If the Royals need to push the Blues to a fifth set, they won’t be bothered. Over the course of the season they played in 10 matches that went the distance and won four of them.  As mentioned above, two of those 10 matches were against the Blues.  Lauren Bowman led their offence with 203 kills and Kara Chan chipped in with 148.  She along with Lauren Way were outstanding at the net combining for 77 blocks.

The last time these two schools met in the postseason was in 2024 when the third seeded Blues upset the #2 Royals in four sets at Douglas.  Mbaoma had 16 kills in that match while Bos added six and Rourke with five.  Bowman was solid for the Royals collecting eight kills.

The winner of this semi advances to the PACWEST gold medal match on Saturday night while the loser will play for bronze in the afternoon.