The 2023 MCAC Men’s Volleyball Championship started the day with both semi final matches on Saturday, February 25. In front of a loud and full house at the host Université de Saint-Boniface (USB) Les Rouges in Winnipeg.
The top seeded CMU Blazers battled to a hard fought four setter victory to return to the championship final as the defending champs while PUC Pilots advanced with a straight set victory.
The teams will now meet in the championship final on Sunday, February 26 at 1 p.m. CT.
#1 CMU Blazers vs. #4 USB Les Rouges
The # 1 seed Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) Blazers (16-4 regular season record) survived a first set scare and then rolled to a 3-1 win over the #4 seed Université de Saint-Boniface (USB) Les Rouges (2-16 regular season record) in the first semi final match of the day by a 30-32, 25-20, 25-17, 25-19 set scores.
In front of an energetic USB home crowd, Les Rouges clawed back from a small early deficit in the opening set. Once the score was tied the two teams traded points until Les Rouges were able to score the winner in an emotional, roller coaster 32-30 victory.
The second set was a different story with CMU and defending champ establishing an early lead. USB tied the score at 14-14 but never led in a game controlled by CMU en route to a 25-20 win. The victory set the tone for the rest of the match.
The third and fourth sets followed the same pattern. Tied at 13-13 in the third set, CMU controlled play in a 25-17 win and went on to win the match with a 25-19 victory.
“We played those guys two weeks ago. It was not this difficult,” said CMU head coach and 2022-23 MCAC Coach of the Year Don Dulder, reflecting on the strong start by Les Rouges. “Credit to my guys, they rose to the occasion.”
Les Rouges head coach Connor Markesteyn said after the match that he was very proud of his team. “We worked hard all week and it paid off. That was their best match of the year. They deserved to go out playing their absolute best.”
Dulder said the USB start forced him to make two key strategic decisions. “We switched our defence from a Manitoba defence to a Trinity defence AND we put the lefty Duncan (Petrie) in on the right side. He is our starter but has some knee issues. I hoped to be able to keep him for tomorrow but it was do or die so I had to put him in. I hope he’ll be OK tomorrow.”
The victory gives the Blazers an opportunity to defend their MCAC championship title.
“We want to go back to nationals badly,” Coach Dulder said. “We want to perform better than we did last year. To do it, we have to get by one of these two teams (ACC Cougars or PUC Pilots). We’d love to do that, that’s our goal but we have to win this first.”
The Players of the Game were middle Markus Martens for the CMU Blazers and left side Colin Leger for the USB Les Rouges.
#2 PUC Pilots vs. #3 ACC Cougars
The second match was dominated by the #2 seed Providence University College (PUC) Pilots (13-5 regular season record) who posted a straight sets victory (25-18, 25-19, 26-24) win over the #3 seed Assiniboine Community College (ACC) Cougars (5-13 regular season record).
The Pilots were in control throughout the first two sets, winning 25-18 and 25-19.
To their credit, the Cougars did not go easily. The third set was tied at 7-7, then 17-17 and 19-19 before the Pilots moved ahead to lead 23-20. ACC again fought back to tie before PUC was able to post the decisive two points.
PUC head coach Cody Quiring gave the Cougars full credit after the match. “That is a really good team. They have some really big power hitters and they put us out-of-system more than you want,” Quiring said. “They were aggressive on the service line so that put our serve-pass game a little bit out-of-system for what we usually like.”
ACC head coach Joel Small called it a good match down the stretch. “We knew we had a chance if we played well. We were in the mindset we were going to battle right to the end. We were down a few in the last set and battled back to push to extra points. We wanted it but we’re a young team – we’ll come back next year!”
Coach Quiring is excited by the opportunity to play the defending champion CMU Blazers. “It is always a battle – always a test with CMU” he said. They’re a very strong team. Hopefully the pressure is on them (to defend the title). We have the opportunity to play our game and we’ll give ourselves the best shot possible.”
Player of the Match for PUC was middle Sebastian Verdaguer and left side Noah Barcellona was named for ACC.
2023 MCAC Men’s Volleyball Championship
Hosted by: Université de Saint-Boniface (USB); Central Time listed
Saturday, February 25
12 p.m. Semi Final: #1 CMU Blazers 3 #4 USB Les Rouges 1
2 p.m. Semi Final: #2 PUC Pilots 3 #3 ACC Cougars 0
Sunday, February 26
1 p.m. Men’s Championship Final: #1 CMU Blazers vs. 2 PUC Pilots
Live webcast for all Championship matches at: youtube.com/lesrougesUSB
– written by Resby Coutts
