Brent Mutis
CapU sports info

The second half of the 2023-24 PACWEST season started well for the Capilano Blues as they claimed a 3-1 win at Columbia Bible College (CBC) Friday night and they might have taken both ends of the weekend set if not for some injury trouble.

The Blues dropped a 3-2 decision Saturday but were without the services of No. 1 setter Jonah Violini who sustained an injury Friday. The Saturday setback was the fourth time in five matches CapU has come out on the wrong end of a five-setter.

Friday's was the first game back after a seven-week exam and holiday break but Capilano looked sharp, especially on serve receive where just a handful of errors were made. The execution on first touch and passing enabled Violini to register 34 assists in distributing the ball to Dario Pereira (20 kills), Brendan Zebrynski (nine kills) and Trevor Matthysen (six kills).

Capilano's defence was solid Friday with seven players recording multiple digs led by a season-high nine from Matthysen.

Owen Genge was a factor at libero all weekend for the Blues as he kept countless points alive and left his feet to rescue numerous would-be CBC kills both nights. 

The loss of Violini heading into Saturday's game left head coach Darrin Moreira some difficult roster adjustments and he used Pereira at setter for a time before turning the job over to Brayden Labossiere. Labossiere was impressive in his first extended look at setter this season as he racked up 37 assists including finding a season-high 10 kills for middle blocker Tate Wheatley. CapU's other middle Jakob Leinemann was also successful on offence with nine kills of his own.

One area that let the Blues down on the weekend was the service game as the team recorded just seven aces in the two matches compared to 49 service errors.

Capilano has bye for the coming weekend and are back in action Jan. 26 and 27 at Camosun College in Victoria.