At some point at national championships, the VIU Mariners will have to deal with adversity to win. But the first match was a breeze.
Vancouver Island University’s women’s volleyball team overpowered the Mount St. Vincent Mystics 25-8, 25-13, 25-12 on Thursday to start the Canadian Colleges’ Athletic Association championships at the VIU gym.
“There was a lot of first-game jitters with the whole atmosphere here,” said VIU’s Marlie Temple, chosen player of the game. “It’s something definitely we haven’t faced yet this season so I think we handled the excitement, the pressure, the nerves; I think we handled it all really well.”
Coach Shane Hyde said his team seemed to play nervous to start, had a better second game, and then perhaps tried to do too much in the third game.
“It wasn’t crisp play on our part, it was just that our opponents were very intimidated, I thought,” he said.
The blowout scores allowed VIU to get every player on the team significant minutes of action.
Temple and Shenise Power each had four kills and Tamara Rosenlund had seven digs.
“From here on out it’s only going to get tougher and tougher…” said Temple. “Definitely we have to keep stepping up our game more and more as the tournament goes on.”
GAME ON … The VIU Mariners play the Humber Hawks in the semifinal Friday (March 9) at 8 p.m. at the VIU gym. Mount Royal and Medicine Hat will face one another in Friday’s other semifinal. The gold-medal match is Saturday (March 10) at 8 p.m. at the VIU gym … For more on nationals, read the Bulletin’s preview or visit the tournament’s official website.
sports@nanaimobulletin.com
