CapU sports info
A season of vast improvement, including a run to the CCAA national championship tournament, came to an end Friday night for the Capilano Blues with a five-set loss (23-25, 25-15, 25-18, 21-25, 15-12) to the Humber College Hawks.
A win would have put the Blues through to the bronze-medal match on Saturday and they got off to the right start taking the opening set against Humber, who were ranked No. 3 in Canada in the last CCAA poll.
The Hawks rallied to take the next two sets but, as they have shown all year, the Blues did not go away quietly. They built an 18-10 lead in the fourth set on the strength of three kills in five points for Nnya Mbaoma. She'd go on to rack up 24 kills on the night, a season high for Capilano. A brief run by Humber forced CapU into a timeout but they emerged settled and went on to finish the set and force a fifth.
In the deciding set, the Hawks were the first to the eighth point but only just as they were up 8-7 as the teams switched sides of the net. Blues coach John Swanson opted for another timeout when Humber took a 12-8 advantage and coaxed a bit of a rally from his team and they got to within two at 13-11 after a kill by Natalie Rourke. Humber was able to buckle down and do what they needed to do to move on to the bronze-medal game.
Playing her final collegiate game, Vanesa Gatto chalked up 12 kills along with an ace and 10 digs. Rourke, Sibby Bos and Jayden Easingwood had two blocks each. Mbaoma was named player of the game for the Blues.
