Deja Vu

#2 VIU Mariners vs. #3 Douglas Royals – Friday February 27, 3:00pm | WATCH HERE

The men’s side of the bracket at the 2026 volleyball championship tournament opens on Friday afternoon when the Mariners (12-8) meet the defending champion Royals (10-10) with a berth in the gold medal match on the line.  This is a rematch of last year’s semi that the third seeded Royals won in five-sets to advance to the Conference title match.

Just four points separate them in the standings with the Mariners taking the seasonal series 3-1 which included a pair of three-set sweeps.  They last met at VIU at the end of January with the home side winning both in three and four sets respectively.  The lone Royals win in the series took place at Douglas on November 22^nd as they earned a sweep.

Coming into the postseason the Mariners have been awesome winning seven of their last eight, including the weekend sweep over the Royals.   They have won matches this season by committee rather than one or two superstars taking over. Their “team first” mentality has paid off with 12 wins on the campaign as Carter Munro leads the offence with 169 kills and Rylan Van Kooten added 151.  Their block defence has been outstanding at the net with Kieran Paauwe and Rowan MacPherson leading the Conference with 49 and 41 blocks respectively.  They are by far the most dynamic blockers in the Conference and will be asked to slow down the Royals offensive attack.

Speaking of the Royals, they are trying to become the first Douglas men’s volleyball team to repeat as PACWEST champs since 1996-1998.  They won 10 matches this season but had their three-match winning streak snapped on Valentine’s Day.  Despite that loss they won three of four in the month of February and will try and upset the Mariners for the second straight season in this very semi-final.  Their offence this season has been led by Marvin Tumusiime and his 257 kills along with secondary scoring provided by Niko Robles, Luke Hans and Jakub Antosik   These weapons will need to find a way around the block defence of the Mariners that has shown they can shut down teams with their play at the net.

This has all the makings for another five-setter like last year’s semi-final and will no doubt be entertaining to watch.  The winner advances to play for gold, the loser will battle for bronze on Saturday.