Golden Royals

Douglas Royals 3
COTR Avalanche 1

The Douglas Royals are PACWEST champs in 2025 after an impressive four-set victory over the top seeded COTR Avalanche on Saturday night.

The Royals needed extra points in the first set to take control of the match winning 26-24 using a balanced attack offensively and outstanding net play on the defensive side by Marvin Tumusiime and Lucas Sansone.

In the second, the Avalanche started to battle back and evened the match with a 25-20 victory led by Diego Policarpo who seemingly hit everything he saw for a point. 

That momentum didn’t last long however as the Royals jumped out quickly in the third set and dominated the Avalanche winning 25-14.  Their defensive scheme took away any easy looks for Policarpo with Tumusiime and Sansone recording block after block shutting the down the Avalanche push back.

In the fourth the Royals continued to pour it on playing strong defence at the net and finished off the Avs with a 25-21 victory to capture their first PACWEST title since 2014.  Tumusiime again was a major factor and finished the match with 14 kills*.

Their balanced attack was just too much for the Avalanche with setter Elijah Kim spreading the ball around keeping the defence on its heels.  Niko Robbles, Sansone and Luke Hans produced for the Royals in the victory giving their offence a different look with almost every serve.

Sansone was named the Royals Player of the Match while Cade Schindel was honoured on the Avalanche side.

Both the Royals and Avalanche will represent the PACWEST in two weeks at the CCAA national championship in Manitoba.  The Royals are the Conference seed while the Avalanche capture a wildcard berth.

Following the gold medal match the tournament All-Stars were announced:

Kris La Guardia - Camosun
Owen Dyck - VIU
Ethan Braam - COTR
Diego Policarpo - COTR
Niko Robbles - Douglas
Elijah Kim - Douglas

Marvin Tumusiime – Douglas – MVP

*stats are unofficial