CIS: Week in Review - Week 1
OUA
By: Everett Delorme
The OUA was the only division to get started this weekend – with the exception of a few teams. Queens was hosting their annual Queens Invitational, with the men joining Montreal, Manitoba, and UNB, while the women played host to Dalhousie, Sherbrooke, and Manitoba.
It was a rough weekend for Gaels fans, as the combined record for the men and women sitting at a tough-to-swallow 1-5. Things were looking grim for the Tri-Colour until the last set of the women’s match, when the bowled over Sherbrooke, 15-5 to grab their schools only win of the tournament.
Sherbrooke went on to win the tournament, winning the head-to-head tiebreaker with Manitoba, who both had records of 2-1. Dalhousie finished with a record of 1-2, their lone victory coming against the hosts.
Queens’ Kelsey Bishop was named to the tournament all-star team, joining tournament MVP Roxanne Hassani from Sherbrooke and her teammate Corinne Santerre, Manitoba’s Rachel Cockrell and Brittany Habing, as well as Dalhousie’s Marlee Powers.
The men’s tournament title went to Manitoba, who went a perfect 3-0 over the course of the three days. UNB took the runners-up spot, firmly cementing themselves as a team to watch this year. Gone in a hurry were the days of 25-straight AUS Championships for Dalhousie’s men’s program. Montreal managed to salvage a win in the final breaths of the competition, humbling the hosts with a 3-0 win.
Manitoba’s second-year Kenny Rooney was named tournament MVP, and was joined on the all-star team by teammate Adam DeJonckeere, UNB’s Elvind Andersen and Julio Fernandez, Montreal’s Sammuel Landry, and Queens’ Scott Brunet.
While Queens was finishing their last minute pre-season, the rest of the league was getting going, and we got to witness one of the least probable starts to a season that we have ever seen.
I don’t know if someone keeps these kind of records (I doubt it), but U of T women’s team did something no one else expected to happen: they massacred the Ryerson Rams in the opening set of the season 25-3.
Most would think this was a good omen for the Varsity Blues, right? Wrong.
The Rams picked themselves up off the floor, brushed the dust of their shoulders, and took it to their cross-town rivals. Not only did they manage to bounce back and win the second set, they won all of the next three, including a 34-32 marathon in the third.
We’re going to go out on a limb and say that this is the first time a team has opened the season with a 25-3 set loss, only to come back and win the next three sets.
Ryerson joins York at the top of the OUA East as the only teams to boast a 2-0 record, as they turned only to defeat McMaster 3-1 just 14 hours after their first match. Lakehead leads the OUA West with a 2-0 record after defeating Windsor by a score of 3-2 on both Friday and Saturday night.
In men’s action, Waterloo was the winner of week one, bullying OUA rookie Nipissing in a 3-0 win, and continued their winning ways against York the next day with a 3-1 win. York, for their part, defeated Guelph the night before.
Canada West
By: Pierre Rocque
In the final tune up for the 2013-14 season going on in Calgary saw the Dinos play host to Trinity Western, University of Alberta and McMaster. The Golden Bears showed why they were the number one ranked team in the country to start the season defeating McMaster in four, Trinity Western in five and the host Dinos in three.
The big game of the weekend would have been the University of Alberta and McMaster match which saw both teams putting out what could be assumed as their starting lineups for the season. Lead by Ryley Barnes (19kills, 6 aces and 2.5 blocks) and Kevin Proudfoot (16 kills, 11 digs) the Golden Bears battled out a tightly contested match at the beginning to closing out in a controlled fashion. Even with near exact hitting percentages (.266 for Alberta and .254 for McMaster) for the whole match, the Golden Bears controlled the last two sets of the match with only 5 hitting total hitting errors to McMasters 12.
AUS & RSEQ
By: Cameron Kerr
Just like the Canada West, The AUS and RSEQ do not begin their regular season until next weekend. The RSEQ travels out east to kick off the season with the first of two cross-conference weekends. UNB hosts the women this weekend and Dalhousie host the men. Stay tuned to Volleyball Source on Friday for links to all of the live streams from out east.