WVB: 'Group of Death' set to battle for conference championship
Women's volleyball semi-finalists have won all but four titles since 1994
Brian Swane, special to CW
It started two weeks ago with 12 teams. Twenty-four games later, the biggest postseason in Canada West volleyball is down to four teams and four games this weekend at the Saville Community Sports Centre in Edmonton.
The 2022 Canada West women’s volleyball Final Four begins Friday with a pair of semi-final match-ups, pitting the host Alberta Pandas against the Mount Royal Cougars at 1 p.m. MST, followed by a meeting between the Trinity Western Spartans and UBC Thunderbirds at 3 p.m. MST.
Then on Saturday, it’s the bronze medal match at 1 p.m. MST, and finally, at 3 p.m. MST, the championship match. The last team standing will have run a three-week gauntlet of the best volleyball in the land, which saw the field narrowed from 12 to six to four through two weeks of pool play.
What remains now is a volleyball quartet equivalent to soccer’s “group of death”. Alberta, UBC and Trinity Western account for all but four of the Canada West championships won since 1994.
The Spartans captured the last two conference titles, in 2019 and 2020, while UBC is the most recent U SPORTS gold medalist, having won the national championship in 2019. Alberta won the most Canada West regular season games in 2021-22, and the only reason Mount Royal doesn’t have the storied past of its peers is because the Cougars are still a relative newcomer to the conference.
And after the championship-winning point is scored and the Women’s Intervarsity Volleyball Trophy is awarded, it still won’t be over; Canada West’s top medalists will be joining the host Calgary Dinos with a spot in the 2022 U SPORTS Women’s Volleyball Championship, taking place March 25 – 27 at Jack Simpson Gymnasium in Calgary.
Catch all of the 2022 Canada West women’s volleyball Final Four streaming live on CWTV presented by Co-op.
Alberta Pandas
(16-2 regular season, 4-1 playoffs)
How They Got Here: finished first in Pool D
Player to Watch: Fifth-year outside Kory White (CW Player of the Year, CW First Team All-Star; 3.89 kills per set, .320 hitting percentage)
Key Stat: Alberta is competing in the Canada West semi-finals for the 10th time in the last 11 seasons, over which time they had won two championships and been runner-up twice.
Mount Royal
(14-4 regular season, 4-1 playoffs)
How They Got Here: finished second in Pool E
Player to Watch: Fourth-year setter Quinn Pelland (Canada West First Team All-Star; 0.47 service aces per set, 9.25 assists per set)
Key Stat: The Cougars were the only team to defeat Alberta during the regular season, going 2-4 against the Pandas, including a win at the Saville Community Sports Centre in the regular season finale.
Trinity Western Spartans
(15-1 regular season, 4-1 playoffs)
How They Got Here: finished second in Pool D
Player to Watch: Fourth-year middle Avery Heppell (Canada West First Team All-Star; 0.86 blocks aces per set, .377 hitting percentage)
Key Stat: Before losing the final match of Pool D to the Pandas in the five sets, the Spartans had a winning streak of 16 matches spanning the Canada West regular season and playoffs.
UBC Thunderbirds
(9-7 regular season, 5-0 playoffs)
How They Got Here: finished first in Pool E
Player to Watch: Second-year middle Claire Cossarini (Canada West Second Team All-Star; 0.92 blocks per set, .306 hitting percentage)
Key Stat: The T-Birds were the only team to beat Trinity Western in the regular season, defeating the Spartans 3-2 on Nov. 27 at the Langley Events Centre.
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