Construction complete

Posted by admin on Oct 20, 2009 in Sports | 0 comments

TWU’s men’s volleyball team returns for another chance at a CIS national title after a year of development that saw the team finish 11-7, losing in the first round of Canada West playoffs. The Spartans are looking to take their past seasons’ experiences through the development phase by contending for a national title this season.

The Spartans finished third in CW during the regular season last season, two points ahead of seventh place in a tightly contested conference that is expected to be a grind again this year. Spartans coach, Ben Josephson, believes the conference will be tough from top to bottom again this year. “Our record ideally should be between 10-8 and 12-6 with an opportunity for a much better record if we can play well against the stronger teams.”

While another regular season success appears to be obtainable, the Spartans hope to add to their playoff resume, as a new goal has been implemented for this season. “We really want to be at the national championship in Kamloops this year,” Josephson notes. Their goal seems reasonable with every player from last year’s team playing on some sort of team over the summer.

At the Canada Summer Games, Mikiah Schalk and Paul Lindemulder won gold for Alberta while Rudy Verhoeff, Marc Howatson, Josh Doornenbal, and Ben Ball claimed bronze for B.C. Daniel Jansen Van Doorn, John Wiebe, and Brad Kufske played for B.C. in the U19 National Challenge Cup while Jarrod Offerings, and Lucas Van Berkel won gold for Alberta in the same tournament. Verhoeff and Howatson also played in the U20 FIVB World Championships in India, coming in 12th place for Team Canada.

However, with more experience comes higher expectations, and Josephson is demanding a lot from his returning players this year. “I don’t expect our first-year athletes to have a major role. Should they earn that right I would be very excited, but our depth of talent with our older players may not make that possible,” he says.

Team mentality has changed from ‘developing into a winner’ to ‘becoming one,’ and this year’s style of play may look different as well. “This year’s team is as skilled and athletic as we have ever had, including our championship teams of the past. We may be a bit smaller and less physical, but the skill level, execution of systems and overall athletic ability may be the best TWU has seen,” says Josephson.

Josephson also loves what the new LEC venue will bring to his team. “The higher roof will help our style of play. We intend to play fast and skilled, with more room to pass and defend we should be able to extend more rallies and play to our team’s strengths.”

Overall, the Spartans appear poised to make their 2009-2010 season a memorable one. The team is hosting the CIS National Championship in 2011, and Josephson sees now as the time to become a winner. “We’ve targeted this year as the first year in our ‘run.’ This team has been building together with the same core for the last two seasons. Now that the team is all roughly second, third, or fourth years, we feel we are poised to make a run to compete for a berth to the national tournament.” This is good news for Spartans volleyball. The team has medaled in every CIS National Championship that it has qualified for.

Men’s volleyball opens its season on Friday, Oct. 30 against UBC at the LEC at 8 p.m.