Brent Mutis, CapU Sport Information & Compliance Officer
A day after running into the No. 1-seed in the tournament and coming up short, the Capilano Blues rebounded to face another higher-seeded team in Camosun College Saturday in the PACWEST bronze-medal match but were unable to secure a spot on the podium.
Capilano played a solid game against the No. 3-seed Chargers, winning the second set 25-22 but the Victoria-based side took the other sets and claimed the bronze.
The Chargers got double-digit kills from Hannah May and Chantal Dobie in Saturday's win.
The Blues continued to get good production from Nnya Mboama, who played arguably her best volleyball of the season at the provincials, as she put away 11 kills.
Hannah Shelemey was another bright spot for the Blues on Saturday. The third-year outside hitter from Gibsons, B.C. added some spark off the bench and kept CapU in the match right up to the finish with multiple kills in the final set and earned the Blues' Player of the Game award.
On Friday night, the Blues were given the unenviable task of facing the tournament- and CCAA No. 1-ranked Vancouver Island University (VIU) Mariners. CapU offered as much as they could but were taken out of gold-medal contention in straight sets.
Sibby Bos, earlier in the week named to the PACWEST All-Rookie Team, took the Player of the Game nod for the Blues as she provided a strong net presence and showed again her reliability from the service line.
The Blues ended up fourth at the PACWEST Provincials thanks to their opening-day win over the College of the Rockies Avalanche. It is the second-straight year the Blues improved upon their finish in the regular-season standings. CapU took fourth in 2020 as well after entering the tournament as the No. 6-seed.
Vanesa Gatto followed up her PACWEST Top Libero honour from last week by earning a spot on the PACWEST tournament All-Star Team.
Douglas College wound up taking the gold medal by upsetting VIU in four sets on Saturday night. Royals setter Jane Kepler earned the tournament MVP award. Douglas is off to the national championships as the PACWEST champion while VIU gets a wildcard berth to nationals which are March 24 to 27 at Holland College in Charlottetown, P.E.I.
