That Sweeping Feeling

It was a good day for the VIU Mariners men’s volleyball team as they opened the CCAA national championship with a three-set sweep over the ACAA champion St. Thomas Tommies in the quarterfinal.

The Mariners took control of the match immediately with a thrilling 27-25 victory and kept pouring it on.  In the second they continued to march and won the set 25-17 to put them in the driver’s seat and had all the momentum going into the third.

The confidence of the Mariners showed through in the third set, seemingly getting stronger as the match progressed. They wouldn’t allow the Tommies to get their offence going and finished them off in the third set 25-14 to earn a berth in Thursday’s semifinal.

Offensively setter Owen Dyck was named the Player of the Match spreading the production around with seven different players recording at least one kill and compiling 17 assists.   Jake Stobbe and Kieran Paauwe each had six kills while Rylan Van Kooten added five as the match’s main producers.

The sweep allows the Mariners to advance to the semis where they will meet either the Humber Hawks or Red Deer Kings on Thursday at 5:00pm PST.