Fourth Place in the Nation for VIU Women's Volleyball
VIU Mariners women's volleyball narrowly misses the podium with a 3-1 loss to the Humber Hawks
NANAIMO, BC - The VIU Mariners season came to a close with a 3-1 loss to the Humber Hawks in the CCAA National Championship bronze medal match. The Mariners fell to the Hawks by the same score in the quarterfinal and finish the tournament in fourth place.
Recap courtesy the CCAA
Bronze Medal Match: Humber Hawks 3, VIU Mariners 1
March 11, 2023
The Humber Hawks are 2023 CCAA women's volleyball bronze medallists following a 3-1 (25-20, 25-18, 19-25, 26-24) victory in a tournament rematch with the host VIU Mariners.
The 2023 bronze is Humber's second CCAA medal in women's volleyball following a bronze finish in 2016. The Hawks victory also interrupted a VIU run of six consecutive seasons earning a CCAA medal (five gold and one bronze).
The Hawks picked up where they left off after their win of Édouard-Montpetit a day earlier, looking very strong as they built a 11-5 lead in the first set before a VIU timeout. The teams went largely point for point the rest of the way, with Humber's Erika Dodd smashing an over-bump to close out the set.
The second set was tight from the get-go until VIU put middle Lainey Granley into the game. The second-year middle earned a kill and an ace right after getting onto the floor, leading to an 10-8 VIU lead. However, Humber responded with a 7-point run and soon pushed the advantage up to 21-11. The Mariners earned three points in row while the Hawks sat on 24 points, but a hard free ball from Ara Telan to the back corner of VIU's side deflected off two Mariners and out to put Humber up 2-0.
The Mariners served notice early that they were not ready to give up the match with two huge Cassidy Kitchen kills and a Linnea Brickwood ace opening the scoring for the home squad. VIU remained two-to-three points up until a Keyome Ellis block and a Telan kill off the tape brought the Hawks level at 15-15. To the delight of the home fans, VIU outscored Humber 10-4 the rest of the way, with Jane Lytvynenko launching a kill from the back row followed by a surprising one-touch of a free ball between Hawks defenders to complete the set.
The fourth set was the closest of the match with the teams trading blows the entire way. A Kitchen roll-shot to the Hawks backline put the Mariners up 24-23, but a block from Telan and Cassidy Andrews tied the game. Hawks setter Stephanie Armstrong launched an untouched ace to put the Hawks back up 25-24, and Erika Dodd fired a shot off a block and out of bounds to clinch the bronze medal for her team.
Dodd, an All-Canadian, had her most prominent game of the tournament and was named Humber's 4Imprint Player of the Game. Cassidy Kitchen, who brought the home fans to their feet multiple times with (unofficially) more than 20 kills, was named Player of the Game for VIU.
Following Lakeland and Camosun's gold medal match, Humber's Alex Lachapelle and Stephanie Armstrong and VIU's Jane Lytvynenko were named First Team Tournament All-Stars. Cassidy Kitchen was named to the Second Team.
Tournament final notes: Lakeland defeated Camosun 3-0 in the final to take the gold medal with Lakeland outside hitter Jenay Varga earning tournament MVP honours. Closing Ceremony Photos