Mariners Playing for Bronze

VIU Mariners vs. Humber Hawks – Sunday March 10, 2:00pm | WATCH HERE

Sunday afternoon the VIU Mariners and PACWEST champs will face the Humber Hawks in the CCAA national bronze medal match.

After blowing through the ACAA champion St. Thomas Tommies on Thursday 3-0, they ran into a very good RSEQ champion on Friday and lost in four sets to the Titans de Limoilou pushing them to the bronze medal side.  On Saturday the Mariners shook off that loss and dominated the Manitoba champion Providence Pilots, dismantling them in three straight sets.  Middle Daniel Mascarenhas led the way with 10 kills and Rylan Van Kooten and Jake Stobbe each had eight.  Lucas Torres saw limited action and his status is unknown for the bronze medal match.

They will face the Hawks who are the four-time defending Ontario champion who beat their Conference counterparts on Saturday night, the Fanshawe Falcons.  It wasn’t easy for the Hawks who were extended and just hung on to beat them in the fifth and decisive set.

The Hawks beat the Camosun Chargers in the quarterfinals back on Thursday in four sets, but then lost their semi-final to the ACAC champion NAIT Ooks out of Edmonton. Like the Mariners they were able to bounce back the next night with the five-set thriller over the Falcons.

The Mariners defence will need to keep an eye on Marcus Morgan who was named the MVP of the Ontario Conference championship tournament and Kyle Grey Phillips.

The last time the Mariners won bronze was back in 2019 when they took down Keyano College in five exciting sets.  Humber meanwhile hasn’t won bronze since 2014. They won silver last year.