PACWEST

Ashley Cousens, the Blues captain, is the team’s on-court and off-court leader.  In the final weekend of league play, Cousens led her Blues to a pair of 3-0 road victories against the Douglas College Royals.  In the wins, she demonstrated why she is regarded as one of the best setters in the PACWEST.

On Friday, Cousens did a great job of set distribution as all of the Blues hitters had at least 2 kills and as a team the Blues hit .315.  She contributed 2 kills of her own, 3 blocks, an ace and 7 digs in the Blues victory.  In Saturday’s rematch, Cousens’ distribution once again allowed all of her hitters to record at least 2 kills and the team hit an incredible .435 kill efficiency. She added 3 kills, 2 blocks, an ace and 5 digs.

Amongst PACWEST setters, Ashley Cousens is currently ranked 2nd in Total Offence and leads all setters by a wide margin in blocking (9th in PACWEST).  Next up for the Blues is yet another trip back to New Westminster vs Douglas College but this time a Quarter-final matchup on Thursday at Provincials Championships.

Fifth year forward, Jenna Ralston helped lead the Capilano Blues to a 2-0 record this weekend at Langara College and Kwantlen Polytechnic University. The Blues defeated Lanagra 83-63 on Friday night. Ralston set a school record hitting an amazing 10-15 from 3-point range scoring 42 points in the win.  On Saturday night, Ralston followed up her Friday night’s performance, shooting another 2/3 from 3-point range on Saturday scoring 13 points in the Blues 76-68 win at Kwantlen. Her 67% shooting from three-point range on Friday night helped Blues move to a record 9-2 on the season.

Next up for the Blues is a road trip up north to play #2  UNBC Timberwolves in Prince George on Friday, Feb. 3, 2012.

Alicia Catalano is in her 3rd year with the Blues. This 6’0” middle from Burnaby, led the Blues to a pair of 3-0 wins against the visiting Camosun College Chargers this past weekend.

On Friday night she led the team with 11 kills on 16 swings and had no errors (.688 kill efficiency). She also led the team with 4 stuff blocks in the Blues victory.

On Saturday, Catalano continued where she left off Friday night finishing the night with 9 kills (.563 K/E) and once again had no errors and adding another 5 blocks and one ace.

Catalano scored a very impressive 30 points (5.00/set) over the course of the weekend.  Now healthy, after battling through two first term injuries, Catalano has developed into one of the league’s dominant middles.

The Vancouver Island University Mariners repeated as provincial Men's Soccer champions after winning the PACWEST men's soccer final by a score of 2-1 over the Capilano University Blues at the Nonis Sports Field in Kelowna on Sunday evening.

“It means a lot to us to repeat,” said VIU head coach Bill Merriman. “It was a heck of a game, I thought it was a great final. Capilano gave us everything they had and I'm happy the game is over, there were some scary moments late in the game, because they had some dangerous free kicks when they were pushing forward and it's just a great feeling. We get to go to Quebec and hopefully represent BC and the PACWEST well.”

The Mariners got both their goals in a stretch of ten minutes in the first half.

Brad Archibald opened the scoring in the 25th minute. Standing outside the penalty area on the left side of the field, Archibald fired a shot from about 22 yards out into the Capilano net.

Then in the 35th minute, Ben Leggett knocked home a loose ball in the front of the Blues' penalty area for what would turn out to be the game-winning goal.

Capilano tried to get back into the match and were rewarded for their efforts when Christopher Diabikulu scored from the left side about 25 yards from the goal.

The comeback attempt was hampered by two red cards issued to Capilano players when the score was 2-1.

The Mariners will now get a chance to defend its Canadian college title as they advance to the CCAA National Championships, taking place Nov. 9-12 in Quebec City, hosted by Collège Francois-Xavier-Garneau.

Third year player, Jackie Caverly is the Blues libero, and has become the team’s back row leader.  Utilizing skills developed from her years playing with Team BC Beach, Caverly has developed into a fearless defender and great passer.  This weekend she anchored the Blues defence in two 3-0 victories versus Douglas College. 

On Friday night, Caverly led her Blues with 20 digs in a Blues win over the Royals.

On Saturday she added another 13 digs. Caverly would finish with a 5.5 digs/set average for the weekend.  In addition, she showed her great range, passing over half the Douglas serves (51/100) in the two matches and had a 2.3 passing average. 

Kyle Moody is a 6’4” graduate of North Van’s Arglye Secondary and is back for another season in the PACWEST after winning the Individual Gold Medal last year.

This past weekend, Kyle led his team to a 3rd place finish at the Camosun Invitational tournament.   Moody led all players with the lowest total score after shooting 65 on day 1 and 75 on day 2 for a weekend total of 140.  With 3 of 4 tournaments complete, Moody leads the PACWEST in the Men’s Cumulative Individual Scoreboard with a 3 tournament total of 430, 4 strokes ahead of Camosun’s Jared Hundza and 5 strokes ahead of UBCO’s Cody Bell.

The Blues enter the final PACWEST Tournament on Oct. 8-9 in Chilliwack. A top 2 finish in the provincial ranking - the Blues currently sit in second, two shots behind Thompson Rivers University and three shots behind Camosun - would earn them a trip to the national championships in Prince Edward Island Oct. 17-21. 

On Saturday afternoon, Cherelle Khassal scored the winning goal in Capilano’s 2-0 victory over two time defending BCCAA Provincial Champions Kwantlen University.  During the entire match she displayed her ability to control the ball up front or in midfield and link her teammates into the attack.  Every time Khassal received the ball, the Blues created an offensive threat.

On Sunday afternoon, Douglas College travelled to North Van to take on the Blues. Khassal continued her excellent performance as she picked apart the Royals.  She set up Capilano’s first goal, then she scored the team’s second and third goal herself.  Khassal had a chance to complete her first half hat-trick, however, while on a breakaway 8 yards from goal she elected to slow down and unselfishly pass the ball to her teammate instead, hoping she would score her first goal of the season.

“Khassal is a technically sound player with a brilliant first touch, terrific ball control, excellent work ethic and she is an amazingly unselfish team player” stated coach Rath. The Blues enter week three with a gruelling road trip Prince George on Sunday, Sept. 25th to take on the UNBC Timberwolves.

Jessica Franz is in her 3rd year of eligibility. After spending her 1st year at TRU in 2008-09, Franz transferred to Capilano in 2009-10. A Surrey native, Franz lead the league in points in 2009-10 and 2010-11. She was also named to the All-Canadian Team in 2009-10 and 2010-11.

The 6’1” forward had a dominating weekend as the Blues defeated the 4th ranked UNBC Timberwolves 74-58 in the Conference Semi-Finals. UNBC was the only team to defeat the Blues all season. Franz had a strong performance scoring 24 points and grabbing 15 rebounds and awarded the Blues Player of the Game. The Gold Medal Game was an exciting game from start to finish. The Timberwolves lead from the start of the game with the Blues fighting to catch up. The 1st half ended with UNBC up 35-31. Capilano would continue to press and with the score 67-66 for UNBC with 3 seconds to play, Capilano found a way to score the final points of the game to not only take the lead for the 1st time all game, but win the Gold medal and a trip to Nationals. Franz would end the game with 18 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists and Tournament MVP honours.

This was the best record and 1st Provincial Gold for the Blues since they won back to back Golds in 1986-87 and 1987-88 season. Capilano also made Gold medal appearances in 2001, 2003 and 2005, losing all games to the University of the Fraser Valley before they entered the CIS. Next up for the Blues is a trip to Niagara College for the CCAA National Championships March 17-19.

Capilano University

Jessica Franz, is a graduate of Elgin Park Sec. in Surrey, and is playing in her 3rd year with the Capilano University Blues. Last season (2009-10), Franz was named to the BCCAA All-Star team and earned CCAA All-Canadian honours. She also led the BCCAA in both points (329 points, 19.35 ppg) and rebounds (203 rebounds, 11.94 rpg) .  She currently sits in the top 10 in both points and rebounds this season.

The 6’1” forward had a dominating weekend as the Blues defeated the Kwantlen University Eagles.  Franz had a strong performance scoring 27 points and grabbing 13 rebounds in just 23 minutes of play, helping the Blues dispose of Kwantlen, 83-38.  She followed that up Saturday with an impressive 22 points, 5 rebounds on 10/14 shooting in just 22 minutes of play. Capilano won that game 85-37.  Coach Paul Chiarenza stated that “in addition to her offensive contribution, Jess was a staple on defense, blocking a number of shots and creating lots of problems for them. It was a weekend of strong performances all around for the Blues.”

The Blues improved to 9-0 on the season while the Eagles dropped to 2-7.

The Blues will take their perfect 9-0 record up north next weekend for two games against the UNBC Timberwolves.