By Dan Marshall

Double PACWEST gold for VIU Mariners volleyball highlights eventful sports weekend in Nanaimo

Feb 23, 2019 | 10:28 PM

NANAIMO – It was a memorable weekend in sports in the Harbour City highlighted by double gold at the PACWEST Volleyball Provincials for the VIU Mariners men’s and women’s teams.

The 14th annual Nanaimo Sport Achievement Awards took place on Friday, and on Saturday the Nanaimo Clippers wrapped up their season in from of a crowd of more than 2000 people.

VIU was in Cranbook this week for the provincial tournament where the women had a bye straight to the semi final. They beat Capilano 3-0 in the semis and took out the number two seed from Douglas College 3-0 in the final. 

Now the Mariners will move on to Niagara College for the CCAA nationals where they look to defend their 2018 National Championship.

The men won their first provincial title since 2007, and did so as an underdog. They were seeded fourth but beat College of the Rockies 3-0 in the quarter finals, then dropped the number one ranked Douglas Royals 3-1 in the semis, before beating the second seed from Camosun 3-1 in the championship match. For the men’s nationals the Mariners will travel to Red Deer College.

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Back on Friday night the 14th annual Nanaimo Sport Achievement Awards were held at the Coast Bastion Inn. The 2018 President’s Cup was named News Story of the Year, while the 2018 VIU women’s volleyball squad was selected Team of the Year.

Here’s a list of the other 2018 Nanaimo Sport Achievement Award winners:

Junior Team of the Year – A2 Nanaimo Timbermen, Male Team Athlete of the Year – Usama Zaid, Female Team Athlete of the Year – Cara Dunlop, Male Individual Athlete of the Year – Raf Korkowski, Female Individual Athlete of the Year – Melissa Ross

Michael Rhode Memorial Award – Terri Cook, Hero in You – Dan Brady, Steve Smith Memorial Award – Phil McGarrigle, Male Junior Team Athlete of the Year – Zach Taylor

Female Junior Team Athlete of the Year – Jayden Saywell, Male Junior Individual Athlete of the Year – Blake Mould, Female Junior Individual Athlete of the Year – Jordan Singer, Masters Athlete of the Year – Patti Rogers, Partners of the Year – Maranda Eby and Natalie McCallum.

High Performance Coach of the Year – Kaleb Toth, Grassroots Coach of the Year – Rick Hart, Sport Administrator of the Year – Rick Bevis, Official of the Year – Garrett Watson

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The Nanaimo Clippers wrapped up their season over the weekend losing 10-6 in Victoria and then beating the Powell River Kings 6-4 at home on Saturday in front of a crowd of 2,172.

That win sets up a best of seven opening round playoff series against the Kings for a second straight year.

Ethan Scardina ended the season as the Clippers leading scorer with 56 points as they finished with a 27-30-1 record.

Nanaimo will hold their team awards banquet Feb 24 at the Coast Bastion Inn.

The BCHL playoffs are set to open on Friday Mar 1.

dan@nanaimonewsnow.com

On twitter: @danmarshall77