Head coach Charles Parkinson’s men’s team laid down the last spike late into the night, upsetting the nation’s No. 1 Douglas College Royals 3-1 (25-19, 23-25, 25-23, 25-23) in four very tight sets. Comox product Rian Plante’s left-handed smash glanced off an attempted block and out for the winning point.
“That last point was a blur,” said Parkinson. “Jeremy Finn was jumping up and down and if I hadn’t put my clipboard down, there would have been papers all over the floor. I’m obviously really proud of the team, but this isn’t our end goal — that’s nationals.”
That tournament is slated for March 12-14 in Charlottetown, P.E.I.
“We have to go in there with confidence, but it’s like anything, you have to play on the day,” said Parkinson. “We’ve got another week to fine-tune our game and we have to go in there, I think, as maybe the favourites.”
Cam Fennema, a graduate of Pacific Christian School, was both Camosun’s player of the final match with 21 kills and the tournament’s most valuable player. Plante was also an all-star along with Chargers’ setter Vitor Macedo. George Thompson and Carson Heppell of Douglas; Jesse Bazergui of Vancouver Island University; and Josh Goosen of Columbia Bible College rounded out the all-stars.
Earlier, the Chargers’ women’s team dropped a gruelling five-set loss (15-25, 21-25, 26-24, 25-14, 15-12) to the defending-champion Mariners of Nanaimo in the final. Both teams head to nationals in Longueuil, Que., March 12-14.
Camosun’s Katie Fetting was named tournament MVP and teammate Erika Sheen was an all-star along with Kelsey Johnson, Megan Groenedijk and Tylar Turnbull of VIU; Kira Sutcliffe of Capilano; and Kelsey Thompson of College of the Rockies in Cranbrook.
The seedings for nationals came out Monday afternoon with the Camosun men at No. 1, the VIU women at No. 2 and Chargers’ women at No. 4 of the eight teams attending.
