Mariners Face Knights at Nationals

The CCAA’s top ranked VIU Mariners, who won their 17th PACWEST title two weeks ago, will open the national championship on Thursday night.

The Mariners will match-up against the host Niagara Knights who won silver in the Ontario Conference after handing the previously undefeated Durham Lords their first loss of the season in the semis.

Thursday should be a big crowd, something the Mariners are used to as the defending CCAA champions. They also played in front of a large crowd at the College of the Rockies during the PACWEST gold medal match against the Douglas Royals. Large crowds cheering against them will not bother the Mariners.

During the regular season the Mariners were 23-1 and led by the PACWEST Player of the Year Karoline Tormena. She led the PACWEST with 219 kills in just 65 sets played and tallied 268 total points. Fifth year setter and captain Chantal Cumming has once again been the calming quarterback of their offence along with a force at the net. Cumming has so many weapons at her disposal it makes it very difficult to defend as most PACWEST teams know all too well. This is her final championship tournament.

The Knights were 11-9 during the regular season and finished fifth in the west division of the OCAA. They were just 5-5 at home and lost their final two home matches prior to the playoffs as they get set to host the nationals.

The Mariners will need to keep aware of where Jordan Koslowski and Natasha Desjardins are on the floor as outsider hitters. Koslowski in her fourth season led the Knights with 213 kills during the season and had a team high 31 service aces. Desjardins on the other hand was second in scoring with 145 kills. Middle blocker Tamara Edwards could play a factor after 39 blocks during the regular season and 89 kills.

These two teams will square off for the first time in history on Thursday at 6:00pm EST/3:00pm PST with the winner moving onto the national semi-final.