The VIU Mariners won a third straight national title in March. With no PACWEST or CCAA season in 2021 the Mariners will try to become just the third team ever to win four straight championships in 2022. (CCAA)

By Dan Marshall

2020 in Review

Top Stories of 2020: VIU volleyball team completes three-peat just before COVID-19 shutdown

Dec 19, 2020 | 11:35 AM

NANAIMO — The VIU Mariners women’s volleyball team completed a three-peat as CCAA national champions in 2020.

They did so playing in one of the last sporting events allowed before the COVID-19 shut down in March.

When the team initially flew to Quebec for the nationals coach Shane Hyde said all of the focus was on volleyball and winning a title.

“By the middle of the week we watched the world change as we were in a different province. Here it is the biggest health challenge in the last 100 years and we were trying to battle our way through a national championship.”

There was a point when the team thought the tournament was going to shut down and they were going to home to Nanaimo.

roster shakeup

Nanaimo Clippers lose two major players to Major Junior ranks

13h ago

armed robbery

Knife-wielding man robs south Nanaimo liquor store

21h ago

Shorthanded

Clippers fall short hosting Bulldogs

Dec 14, 2024

“I look back and knowing how everything has been shut down since it’s such a special thing that we had this remarkable season and our three-peat.”

Winning three championships in a row puts Vancouver Island University in elite company as one of the greatest dynasties in CCAA volleyball.

Sherbrooke captured four titles in a row between 1985-88 and F.X. Garneau was the best team in the country between 2000-03.

Garneau also won three in a row from 1996-98, and the Mariners 2018-20 run is the only other one of its kind since the CCAA national tournament began.

Hyde acknowledges 2021 will be a blank year on the championship calendar but the VIU volleyball program is already loading up for another title in 2022.

“We have an extremely good team with everybody in place to defend that fourth title. I can’t believe how hard we were training in a year we don’t even have competition. Everybody is excited to return for next season and if our season is ready to go in September we’ll be ready.”

The players were in full training earler in the fall, even after VIU and the PACWEST confirmed there would be no season.

Health restrictions as well as the usual Christmas Break put practice on hold with a tentative return set for the middle of January.

A formal celebration for the 2020 national volleyball champions still hasn’t taken place.

There was no Mariners awards banquet, no rings were ordered and a championship banner has yet to be raised in the very crowded rafters of the VIU gym.

Hyde admitted he hasn’t seen some of the players since they touched back down in Nanaimo after winning the nationals.

Most of the team however has been together training and waiting for the opening serve of the next season.

dan@nanaimonewsnow.com

On twitter: @danmarshall77