A championship looms

Posted by admin on Nov 10, 2010 in Sports | 0 comments

Trinity Western University will host the 2011 CIS Mens National Volleyball Championship at the Langley Events Centre in March, assuring the Spartans a spot in the final eight. And while some of the team has come and gone, the goal remains the same in head coach Ben Josephson’s eyes: improve from their second place finish in the country last season.

The Spartans have already returned to the floor following a busy pre-season schedule that saw them play over 30 matches. But, while their regular season games are important, this year is all about Nationals.

Josephson states, “Our ultimate goal is to improve upon last year’s result. With only one step left to take, that is our ultimate goal and with the team we have assembled and the home court Faithful we believe we have what it takes this season.”

Leading the charge this year for the Spartans will be setter Ben Ball, who will be the man finding some of the Spartan’s offensively talented and big hiters after losing highly regarded outside, Steve Marshall. Additionally, currently injured but offensive sparkplug, left-side Mark Howatson will return during the second half of the semester to help lead the Spartans deep into the playoffs. Fan favourite and middle, Rudy Verhoeff, will be in charge of continuing his strong blocking performance seen at last year’s Nationals. Not to be forgotten is Josh Doornenbal, who had 250 attack kills in only 128 games last season. With returning players Jarrod Offereins and Mikiah Schalk adding depth to the squad, the Spartans are well organized and both mentally and physically ready to go all the way this season.

As far as recruiting goes, Josephson couldn’t be happier stating, “we have added maybe our best recruiting class ever. With that said, we have been stock piling talent for a few years now. The new Spartans add depth to an already talented roster but they may not be called upon much this season as some of the 2nd and 3rd year guys will fill in for the athletes we lost from last year’s team.”

The strong and richly talented squad is already paying dividends from their busy pre-season schedule in which they defeated arch-rival and strong Canada West competitor, the UBC Thunderbirds, on their home turf two weekends ago. The Spartans then split their matches this past weekend against Thompson Rivers during their home opener, improving their record to a respectable 3-1.

All in all, this season will be considered a failure on the floor if the Spartans do not return to the CIS National Championship game. With loads of talent within their starting six and a strong bench, the only thing to do now is wait and be patient for

March to come.