By Dan Marshall

VIU Mariners volleyball teams take different journeys to nationals

Mar 9, 2017 | 10:51 AM

NANAIMO — The VIU Mariners Volleyball teams are both at CCAA Nationals this week.
 
The women are looking for a second straight National Championship and just won the BC title at the VIU Gym two weeks ago.
 
Meanwhile the men’s team is a wild card entry after a first place regular season and a silver medal in the provincial championship.
 
The actual journey for the two teams has been quite different.
 
The VIU women’s team is traveling 110 kilometres down Vancouver Island to Camosun College, and they even have a fan bus scheduled to go to their first match.
 
It’s a much longer journey for the men who have gone 4,277 km to Fanshawe College in London, Ontario.
 
Women’s coach Shane Hyde says dealing with long flights and a time change is often part of the process when you go to nationals, so the short drive to Victoria is a welcome change.
 
“It’s been an extremely long season and we’re excited to just drive down the island and not take a ferry or a plane,” said Hyde. “The entire team is pretty excited about playing at Camosun.”
 
The Mariners first match on Mar 9 is against the Cavaliers de Bois-de-Boulogne out of Quebec at 1 p.m.
 
Hyde is very familiar with their team and their coach.
 
“Sylvain Noel is an extremely good coach, he’s a friend of mine and he was Coach of the Year last year. It’s a team definitely that in my mind is stronger than an eighth place team,” said Hyde.
 
On Wednesday fifth year Mariner Megan Rosenlund was named the CCAA Women’s Volleyball Player of the year at the awards banquet. 
 
It’s an accolade the entire team will share with her and Hyde says he encourages his players to soak up those moments and enjoy the experience.
  
“We celebrate for about an hour and then we switch it off and get back to business,” said Hyde.
 
The Mariners men will have a tougher draw as a wild card team, they open with a quarter final match against the Mohawk Mountaineers Thursday at 3 p.m.
 
It won’t happen early in the draw but there is the potential for VIU to meet their island rivals from Camosun later in the tournament.
 
In the PACWEST men’s final the Chargers beat the Mariners to capture the BC title.
 
All of the men’s and women’s match results will be available online at ccaa.ca.