Sunday, February 25, 2007

CIS CORNER: BANNER VOLLEBALL WEEKEND; GEE-GEES OUSTED BY UQTR

Here's the kind of weekend it's been for our university teams of interest from the 613:
  • VOLLEYBALL: The Gee-Gees women' and Queen's Golden Gaels men each blasted McMaster on Saturday to win the OUA volleyball banners, so there's an obligation to pay homage.

    The Gee-Gees, led by setter Laura Simons and hitter Christine Lamey, smoked McMaster 3-0 to earn a spot in next weekend's CIS championship in Calgary. Whatever happens out there against those Amazonian Can West teams, the Gee-Gees' win was great to see -- they had only the fifth-best regular-season record in the OUA, but knocked off Western on its own floor and then swept McMaster, earning the chance to dump the water bucket on their coach, Lionel Woods. Friday, Knowing Western, they'll probably claim that caused the boards in the gym floor to become warped and try to get Ottawa to pay for it. (Just kidding.)

    The Gee-Gees are seeded No. 7 of eight teams at the nats and will face No. 2 Laval Rouge et Or in the quarter-final (Thursday, 2 p.m. Eastern).

    As for the Gaels, setter Devon Miller led them to five-set win (15-13 in the final frame) over Mac on Saturday. Coach Brenda Willis' Gaels won't get too go anywhere exotic for the nationals (it'll be in Hamilton), but hey, a banner is a banner.

    (Do volleyball titles won at McMaster's expense ease the sting of Jesse Lumsden returning a kickoff for a touchdown in the final minute to force overtime in the 2003 Queen's-Mac game? Let's not go nuts. That kind of hurt is almost permanent.)
  • MEN'S HOCKEY: The Gee-Gees were eliminated Sunday, losing 4-2 to Trois-Rivières in Game 3 of the conference semi-final. Martin Bricault, who'd stopped 69 of 71 shots in two playoff games (including Friday's series-tying 5-2 win), got the start, but a shortie by Trois-Rivières' Jonathan Boutin midway through the second period was too much to overcome. Mathieu Curadeau and Troy Duncan tallied for Ottawa.

    It'll be Toronto and Trois-Rivières in a best-of-3 conference final; winner goes to University Cup.
  • WOMEN'S HOCKEY: Mandi Duhamel netted four points in the No. 4 Gee-Gees' season finale Saturday, a 5-2 win over the Concordia Stingers. The Gee-Gees play Carleton in a best-of-3 Quebec conference semi-final which begins Wednesday. The No. 8 Queen's Golden Gaels are apparently going to host the Waterloo Warriors (what was wrong with being the Athenas, anyways?) in an OUA quarter-final next Saturday at Jock Harty Arena. Waterloo finished in sixth place -- they had the same number of wins and points as Guelph, but one less tie.
  • MEN'S HOOPS: Toronto-Ottawa got an advancer, liveblog and game story.
    WOMEN'S HOOPS: Queen's is done for the year after York won decisively, 65-41, in Saturday's OUA East final. Long-time coach Dave Wilson brought in another solid team (18-16 overall) that us Tricolour types could be happy for. Best of luck to the Gaels' graduating fifth-year player, East all-star Claire Meadows.

That's all for now. Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Neate
None of us can follow everything, so not surprising you missed a big "613" CIS game last night.
The GG w-volleyball team upset UWO on Western's home court to advance to the OUA championship game. They will play Mac who also pulled an upset over UofT. The championship game will be shown on a tape delay tonight (Sat) around 11:15ish, on Rogers Community Channel 22 here in Ottawa. IT is Great the way this channel has shown so many local university teams this season. Keep them coming Rogers!

sager said...

Good point.... with the "teams of interest" it refers to the CIS sports that are most of interest to the writer, which are basketball, hockey and football.

Accolades on the Gee-Gees women... and Queen's men are also in an OUA final, tied 1-1 with McMaster with the deciding match today in Kingston.