Saturday, February 23, 2013 - Vancouver, B.C… The season will come to a wrap earlier than anticipated for the Mount Royal Cougar women's volleyball team as they dropped a tight straight sets decision (33-35, 20-25 and 23-25) to the University of Alberta Pandas in Canada West bronze medal action Saturday afternoon in Vancouver.
Aside from the hardware, both teams were playing for a berth in the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) National Championship being held in Feb. 28 - March.2 in Sherbrooke, Quebec - unfortunately for head coach Sandra Lamb and the Cougars, their season will end here.
"It's obviously disappointing," said Lamb. "But overall, what a season. I'm so proud of this team - we came into the year as rookies and played like veterans. We grew so much both on and off the court and battled all year long. We made a mark in our first year, which is something to be proud of. Our team really bought in and made things happen, I couldn't be more proud of this team."
Third-year outside hitter Dione Lang led the charge for the Pandas, compiling a team-high 10 kills on 20 attempts, while three other Pandas registered seven kills on the afternoon including Kacey Otto, Jaki Ellis and Krista Zubick.
For the Cougars, it was rookie sensation Carolyn O'Dwyer once again pacing the offence, putting away a game-high 12 kills. Fourth-year middle Julia Pasieka was the Cougars most consistent option, stringing together 10 kills - converting over 30 per cent of her kill opportunities.
The first set was the definition of a see-saw battle, as neither team could gain more than three points separation. Tied at 17 a piece, the two clubs would sideout to 33-33 as impeccable defence and timely kills kept both sides alive.
Digging a Kylie Willis ball tied at 33's, Lang buried a ball down the middle giving the Pandas the 34-33 lead. On the ensuring serve the Cougars would put themselves in ideal position to continue the set, but a hitting error would quash the Cougars hopes as Alberta sneaked away with a 35-33 set win.
The lengthy 35-33 set tied for the longest set in Canada West action this season. Coincidentally, Mount Royal was also involved in a 35-33 set two weeks ago in War Memorial Gym, when they ended UBC's 37-set winning streak. The two sets are the longest Canada West women's volleyball sets since November of 2005.
Lang and Zubick each registered four kills in the opener, while O'Dwyer racked up eight of her 12 kills in the first, adding in nine digs.
The Pandas were also amazingly consistent at the service line in the first set, committing no service errors while the Cougars had six.
Alberta would continue to carry the momentum in the second set, grabbing their biggest lead of the day at 13-8 as Lang continued to find soft spots in the Cougars defence.
However, Mount Royal, just as they'd done all season, continued to fight, forcing errors as Alberta tried to hit high or wide past the Mount Royal block, ultimately leading to a 17-17 tie.
With the score at 22-20 Alberta, the Pandas would ice another set, as Lang once again played the roll of finisher reigning down a kill from the outside to put the Pandas ahead by two sets, claiming the second 25-20.
Mount Royal led most of the way in the third, going up 16-12 on a Julia Pasieka kill before the Pandas kicked things into high gear. Alberta went on a 6-1 run from there to take the lead, eventually winning on Mount Royal's 25th attack error of the night, grabbing the third 25-23 and match 3-0.
Alberta moves on to the CIS national tournament next week in Quebec, along with UBC and Trinity Western. UBC went on to win Saturday, downing TWU 3-1 to claim their sixth straight Canada West gold medal.
Despite the loss, the future looks bright for the Cougars, who return their full complement of starters next fall. Mount Royal ends their inaugural season in the Canada West and CIS with a 14-8 regular season record, 2-2 playoff record, and a fourth-place finish in the conference.
This is the third year in a row that Alberta, Trinity Western and UBC are the three Canada West representatives in the CIS tournament.
Coach Lamb called it "a pleasure to be in the company of those three teams in the final four."
