Nice little feature with McMaster Marauder Danny Demyanenko! He and his McMaster Marauders play in the CIS semi-finals tonight at 6 MT, 10 ET.
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Stephen Maar (left) and Danny Demyanenko (right) after a practice earlier this week at McMaster University. Photo: Jeff Tam
The McMaster Marauders took aim at the stars this past year, and for a time, it seemed that the program would be forced back to earth.
Head Coach Dave Preston embarked on a recruiting drive nearly a year ago with the stated mission of chasing down the very best.
The only problem: the best rarely stay north of the 49th parallel.
“I told our players that we were going after some blue chip guys this year,” explains Preston. “I warned them what that could mean.”
The “blue chip” class in question was headlined by Danny Demyanenko and Stephen Maar, two leading members of the vaunted Toronto Crush club team that successfully toured the United States before winning yet another national club title in May.
After three days of play at the 2011 FIVB Junior World Beach Volleyball Championships in Halifax, we are down to quarter final action on both the men's and women's side of the tournament. Canada saw five teams make it out of pool play and into the elimination round. Sidgwick-Kazhamiaka won their pool and joined Demyanenko-May and Del Bianco-Chow on the men's side of the tournament to represent Canada in the later rounds of the tournament. On the women's side two teams made it out of pool play as well. Hudson-Sider and Altomare-Humana-Paredes will continue on in the elimination part of the tournament. Unlike a normal FIVB grand slam event, this event is single elimination. Matches, results and brackets and live streams below.
First Round Men's Matches
 |
Kaszas O.-Kaszas S. | vs. |  |
Demyanenko-May | 1-2 (21-18, 16-21, 12-15) |
|
Sidgwick-Kazhamiaka | vs. |  |
Glöckner-Stork | 2-0 (21-13, 21-15) |
|
Del Bianco-Chow | vs. |  |
Haralds-Armands | 0-2 (13-21, 18-21) |
More match results, brackets and live streams after the jump.
The 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball Junior World Championships starts today in Halifax, Nova Scotia and will run until September 4th. Canada was chosen to host this year's event due to Garret May and Sam Schachter winning the gold medal last year in Turkey. Garret is back this year with a new partner, Danny Demyanenko. On the women's side of the tournament, recent bronze medalists at the 2011 Canadian National Beach Volleyball Championship Melissa Humana-Paredes and Victoria Altomare are also in Halifax with a direct main draw entry. Due to Canada hosting as well as previous finishes, every Canadian team on the men's and women's side of the tournament will begin in the main draw. Main Draw action starts on September 1st. Check out the links below for live streaming video information.
Canadian Women's Teams
 |
Altomare-Humana-Paredes |
|
Gosselin-Robichaud |
|
Hudson-Sider |
Canadian Men's Teams
|
Demyanenko-May |
|
Sidgwick-Kazhamiaka |
|
Del Bianco-Chow |
Live Streams after the jump.