Women's Volleyball Athlete of the Week (34)
Dani Smith played her final league matches in front of her home crowd for the final time this past weekend. The 5’11” fifth year setter from Beaver Lodge, Alberta, was given a very emotional ceremony celebrating her career in the PACWEST. In what has become known over the years as the Island Rivalry, the Mariners would face a very determined Camosun squad playing some of their best volleyball of the season. With all of the extra activities taking place, Smith was exceptional at putting everything else aside and playing some of her best volleyball of the season.
Leading her team to straight sets wins both days, Smith distributed the ball with ease bringing all of her hitters into the game and making the Mariners' offence very tough to defend. She recorded a total of 17 digs, 4 kills and 4 blocks and 63 assists in the weekend series. “Dani is one of the best setters in the Country and has been selected to our National team for a reason” stated coach Hyde.
The Mariners make the long, arduous trip to Cranbook where they hope to defend their 2012 PACWEST title and trip back to the Nationals to defend their 2012 National Championship.
Hilary finished the weekend with 36 kills averaging 4 kills per set and 4.7 points per set. “It’s that time of year for peak performance and Hilary’s increased volume has coincided with an increase in production. Your best seek the ball under pressure and our captain is doing a great job leading the charge.” commented Coach Dahl.
On Saturday the Chargers evened the season with the Blues posting a 3-2 win. Sweeping the fist two sets the Chargers lost a battle in the third 24-26 and quickly found themselves in a fifth and deciding set. Graham finished the night with 20 total kills and 9 digs.
On Friday the Chargers fell behind 0-2 to the Blues. Camosun would capture the third set 25-21 but eventually lost the fourth in a 3-1 loss to Capilano. Graham finished the night with 16 kills, 2 stuff blocks, 2 service aces and 12 digs.
Hilary Graham is a graduate of Mark R. Isfeld Secondary. The third year, 5’10” leftside from Courtenay, BC is the Chargers team captain this season. Graham ranks amongst the league leaders in Kills per set, Aces per set and Total Offense. She led the Chargers through a split in PACWEST league action versus Capilano University this past weekend.
This past weekend featured the CCAA #1 (UFV) and CCAA #2 (VIU) ranked teams in the country facing off against each other. In head to head matches, the Mariners had the tie-breaker but needed to sweep both matches to take over 1st place in the PACWEST. Leanna Gildersleeve played a large role for VIU all weekend.
Friday night the Mariners showed their strength taking the match 3-1. Gildersleeve recorded 12 digs, 16 kills and 1 ace in the victory.
On Saturday, the Mariners came out a little sluggish and dropped the first two sets but battled back to take the 3rd and 4th. The 5th was a tight battle with UFV taking the match 3 sets to 2. Gildersleeve improved on her previous performance tallying 22 digs, 20 kills, and 2 blocks.
The Mariners won the weekend head to head battle and was led by their 4th year Power. Gildersleeve’s total weekend stats were a season high 34 digs, 36 kills, 2 blocks and 1 ace.
This past weekend the VIU Mariners took on a very strong CBC Bearcats squad. The two teams had met earlier in the year with CBC beating the Mariners in 3 straight sets. The Bearcats have arguably two of the best Power hitters in the PACWEST. The Mariners needed to play some of their best volleyball of the season if they hoped to gain 6 points. That was the case both Friday and Saturday. The VIU Mariners were led by the strong play of Paige Wiebe who was matched up against the Bearcat’s strong outside hitters.
On Friday, Paige shut down the Bearcats outside hitters right off the bat. She tallied 2 stuff blocks and another 5 block continues. She recorded 8 digs defensively. On the offensive side of the game Paige led the Mariners with 10 kills, 2 blocks, and 1 ace in 3 straight sets. On Saturday, Paige improved on her offensive play recording 11 kills, and 1 ace and chipped in 5 digs again in only 3 sets. In total, over the 6 sets this weekend, Paige recorded 21 kills, 2 blocks, 2 aces and 13 digs.
3rd year setter and team captain Anna Cupido showed why she is one of the top setters in PACWEST this past weekend as she quarterbacked the CBC Bearcats to a sweep over the Douglas College Royals. Cupido dished out 43 assists on Friday night and added 56 more on Saturday as the Bearcats improved to 10-6 in the PACWEST standings.
Cupido’s exceptional ball distribution led to three Bearcat hitters with double figure kills each night as the Bearcats diverse offense kept a solid and much improved Douglas College team out of the win column. The third year setter added 9 kills & 4 aces to her 99 assists but the real story was how she accomplished those numbers while racking up 25 digs off of the Royals, who peppered the Bearcats setter by hitting balls into positions one and two consistently both nights.
“Anna is one of the best all around setters in the conference this year and continues to find ways to give her hitters lots of single block hitting opportunities week in and week out” noted Bearcats head coach Duncan Harrison. “She is an exceptional leader and a high achiever both on the court and in the classroom”.
Morgan Marshall is a 6’0” middle from Smithers, BC. A graduate of Smithers Secondary and alumni of Thunder Volleyball Club (Vancouver), Marshall enters her 2nd year at Camosun and in the PACWEST.
The Chargers made the long Winter trek to Cranbrook for their second week of league play in 2013. Short staffed due to injury and illness for the past two weeks, the Chargers received an incredible 5.2 points per set from Marshall during their sweep of the Avalanche. Heading into the weekend Marshall was #1 on the leader board in the PACWEST for blocks per set and 10th in total offense.
“Producing 5 points per set is remarkable from any position in our sport. In order to accomplish this from the middle probably means you’re doing it in a variety of ways and the team around you plays a major role in helping create this. Morgan is putting together an excellent season statistically in her first full year as a middle with the Chargers and it’s really no surprise to those inside our program.”
– Camosun Chargers Head Coach Chris Dahl
The PACWEST restarted this past weekend and saw only four of the league’s seven teams in action. The Camosun College Chargers travelled to New Westminster to play Douglas College while the Vancouver Island University Mariners travelled to North Vancouver to take on a very strong Capilano University Squad.
The Mariners were sitting 2 points behind the idle UFV Cascades and took full advantage of their weekend off. In two very difficult matches, VIU would come away with two victories and four points to temporarily put them in first place the women’s division. UFV has two matches in hand.
Alyssa Wolf was a dominant player Friday for the Mariners. In a 3-0 win (25-21, 25-20, 26-24), Wolf recording 16 digs, 12 kills and 3 aces in only 3 sets of play.
On Saturday the Mariners changed their line-up as they prepared for the second half on the season. With a continually mixed up offence, Wolf was able to put up some very respectable numbers as she finished with 4 digs, 2 kills and 1 ace in only 2 sets of play.
Carly is a 6’0 leftside from Delta, a graduate of Seaquam Secondary and Team BC Alumni.
During the Chargers’ sweep over the College of the Rockies Avalanche Carly’s contributions were steady and came in a variety of categories. In a rare Saturday/Sunday tilt Carly provided 16 points (14 kills, 1 block, 1 ace) and 8 digs on day one and followed with 10 (6 kills, 1 block, 3 aces) and 11 digs on day two. In addition to steady offensive contributions over the weekend, Carly contributed 8 and 11 digs from the backcourt respectively.
“Carly continues to make the difficult transition from middle, where she played the majority of her PACWEST All-Rookie selection campaign in 2011-12, to a very demanding leftside position. We’re happy with the body of work she’s put together to this point of the season. Carly has always presented great potential as a wing player and is now working on performing at a high level with consistency.” – Chargers Head Coach Chris Dahl
This past weekend was a battle for top spot in the women’s division of PACWEST. With the departure of UBC Okanagan to the CIS and the emergence of UFV volleyball the past several years, the Vancouver Island University Mariners, PACWEST’s traditional powerhouse has a new institution to battle with for top spot. UFV has gone toe to toe with VIU this season and the weekend matches were a sign of the emerging rivalry between the two Universities.
UFV travelled to Nanaimo to play the reigning National Champions. With first place on the line this early in the season, it would prove to be an important weekend for both teams. It was however a tale of two matches for the Cascades. Friday night, the girls from Abbotsford did not play very well at all while the Mariners did. Krista Hogewoning was arguably UFV’s player of the weekend. Friday night’s match was a hard fought affair but VIU was able to secure the win with scores of 25-18, 25-21, 25-18. For Hogewoning’s part, she tallied 6 kills and 4 digs in the loss.
On Saturday, Hogewoning was switched from the Right Side to the Left Side and was a dominant force in that move. All weekend long she played well but it was on Saturday where she shined. “She is an exceptional passer, a deadly attacker, and as the game wore on VIU had to go to the bench to find someone to pass her serves.” Commented coach Bokenfohr. “In the more highlighted games of our first semester between the two top teams, she was the best player on our court. In the big games you need your best players being the best. That defined Krista’s performance on the weekend.” Hogewoning added 15 kills 2 aces and 21 serves in 4 sets, and chipped in 7 digs in Saturday’s rematch. UFV would win 3-1 to retain top spot in PACWEST.
After a long road trip to Cranbrook, the Cascades finally made it to town. Friday night Bruce had 4 digs, 14 kills, 8 blocks and 3 aces. On Saturday she followed that up with 10 digs, 9 kills, 5 blocks and an ace, for a weekend total of 23 kills, 13 blocks and 4 aces against the Avalanche. “These are great statistics. Kayla’s numbers were so hot this weekend she averaged 5.71 points per set. A complete performance by our All-Canadian,” said UFV head coach Dennis Bokenfohr. “One thing that was apparent was, this was the first weekend where Kayla was playing without pain. She has been recovering from an injury that occurred in the first week of school. Her arm speed is back and she was unstoppable. Her confidence has always been there and she was playing at the caliber the competition has come to expect in years previous. As a team we demand a lot of her and she delivers night after night.”
Kayla Bruce is a 5th year middle from Surrey, B.C. Her stats paint a bit of a picture of how her weekend went. Bruce, helped the UFV Cascades women’s volleyball team sweep the COTR Avalanche, in PACWEST action this past weekend, 3-1, Friday and 3-0, on Saturday, to improve to a perfect 8-0, good for 5th in the CCAA top ten poll.