Blazers Men's Volleyball Make a Power Push in the Standings
MCAC Week 16 Recap
The Blazers' Timothy Juvonen was selected as MCAC Athlete of the Week for his efforts on the weekend
It was another busy weekend for the Blazers, with a number of high-importance games being played that will likely have ramifications for playoff seeding coming down the home stretch of the conference schedule. However, not all the games went the Blazers' way this week, unlike last weekend, when CMU teams gained points in nine of ten games played.
That weekend saw men's futsal come home from Brandon with two wins, while their female counterparts came home with a win and a draw. Earlier in the weekend, women's and men's volleyball each took wins of their own home from Brandon, while the Blazers basketball squads took wins on home court over St Boniface. The lone loss of the weekend was the first of the season for men's basketball, who dropped their game in Niverville to the Pilots after the Blazer women took their tenth win in conference play to stay perfect thus far.
With the basketball teams on a bye weekend from MCAC commitments, the volleyball squads were the first to hit the court on Friday night for a weekend back-to-back with the visiting Providence Pilots. Coming into the match, both women's and men's teams were separated from their rivals by only four points, a gap that could be covered with two wins by the lower-ranked team. The Blazer women had the edge in the standings going into the weekend, holding the second-place spot above the third-ranked Pilots, while the Blazer men were also in second spot, but looking up at the CCAA Nationally-ranked Pilots above them in the standings.
Friday's women's match started as any of the limited fans could have hoped, with two set wins to put the Blazers in a commanding lead heading into the third set. Nevertheless, the Pilots did not go down without a fight, as they took the third and all the momentum with them, and rolled to a marathon five-set victory. On the men's side, a tight extra-points victory by Providence in the first set made it seem as though we were in for another marathon match; however this time it was the Blazers seizing some momentum in their favour, and used it to rattle off three consecutive set wins to take the match 3-1.
Saturday's rubber matches followed graduating student presentations prior to first serve. On the women's side middle Chloe Friesen, setter Renee Desroches, and libero and left side Lydawn Mcgarry were recognized for their achievements on the court and at CMU, while men's team libero Levi Klassen, and right side Matthew Page were also praised for their commitments to collegiate sport and academics.
It was clear from early on that the Pilots women were intent on crashing the senior night party, and continued from where they left off the night before with a powerful offense that the Blazers had no response for, leading to straight sets victory for the visiting team. The Pilots wins coupled with the Blazers losses leaves each team with an 8-6 record, with the Blazers holding a slight advantage in sets won, but the Pilots holding the edge in head-to-head play going into the final two weekends of conference play.
On the men's side, it was veteran setter Timothy Juvonen once again running the offence for the Blazers, his first back-to-back start since his season lost due to injury prior to the lost pandemic season, and once again he was spreading the ball masterfully using all the weapons at his disposal, including a few attacks himself. A first set win was followed by a tight second-set loss, but the Blazers recovered and returned with consecutive set wins to take the match 3-1. The two weekend wins by the Blazer men over the Pilots mean the points gap in the standings has been erased, with the CMU side now holding the crucial head-to-head matchup advantage heading down the final stretch of the season.
The weekend of Blazer sports wasn't completed just yet, as CMU played host to the women's portion of the second leg of the MCAC futsal season, while the Blazer men were out in Otterburne playing the hosts and their Winnipeg rivals St Boniface Rouges. Graduating women's soccer and futsal player Elizabeth Andrews was also recognized on the day in the team's only home appearance of the season. Unlike the first weekend of futsal play when the men came home with two wins over their Brandon foes, and the women took a win and a draw, both teams struggled to keep up with their Southern Manitoba counterparts.
In the first match of the day, the Blazer men fell to perennial powerhouse Les Rouges with a scoreline of 7-3, and shortly thereafter the Blazer women fell to St Boniface as well with a score of 8-4. Goal scorers for the Blazer women included week 15 MCAC Female Athlete of the Week Tiegan Kroeker, along with goalkeeper Tai Linklater, co-captain Melissa Gilbert, and rookie Kalyssa Wasylik.
The second matchup of the day saw the Blazer men play to a 2-2 draw with the home side Pilots, while on the women's side, the Blazer women mustered only one marker off the foot of Melissa Gilbert in their 3-1 loss to Providence. These results leave the CMU women's squad with a 1-2-1 record, while the men hold a 2-1-1 record and will now have to wait on the other four schools to complete their schedule during the third leg weekend this Sunday to find out standings for playoff contention.
Next up for the Blazers are two Saturday night matchups; the Basketball squads are back in action against the visiting Providence Pilots at the Loewen Athletic Centre, while the volleyball teams head back to St Boniface for their final meetings of the regular season.
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