Golden Bears volleyball cleans up, in good shape for playoffs

In another life, the University of Alberta Golden Bears volleyball team went undefeated, told Trinity Western to get lost, and laughed at the Thompson Rivers’ attempt to steal a match.

Instead, they lost three in a row. As a result, they fell from first to fourth in Canada West. It made you question whether the Bears really had Canada West playoffs in the bag.

All that was left were two hard-fought weekends and a few throw away games that the Bears had in the bag. Right?

Wrong. Their loss to Thompson Rivers was enough to make it three in a row with a season high of 30 service errors. But their sweep against the British Columbia Thunderbirds brought it down to 25 and 20.

But that’s as low as it might get.

An unfortunate dilemma in men’s volleyball is that players have to serve hard, or they set up the opposing team for point stealing kills. But in doing so, they take costly, game-deciding errors.

If Isaac Heslinga, the only Bear to reach 100 aces, could live on the service line and force other mixed up players to stay put, he would. The Bears would have a more secure game. And, head coach Brock Davidiuk would probably breathe a little easier knowing the point wouldn’t go to waste.

Alas, it doesn’t work that way. But Liam Espedido isn’t too far behind or ahead of Heslinga — who’s at 0.34 serves per set — at 0.51.

Add in Luke Waddells 9.88 assists per set, with Heslinga, Jacob Sargent, and Trent Cherewaty’s attack line and the Bears are as solid as they’ll get.

We’ve seen this with their five-win comeback to erase that three-game losing streak, and a final weekend sweep against Mount Royal — now officially snubbed from playoffs — just to lock it in.

Post-Mount Royal

Whether it’s the 16-4 record, the four players on Canada West leader boards, or the likely continuation of the U Sports gold medal, the Bears will head into their bye for round one in a positive state.

The Bears have swept and been swept by teams in the West. So they have an idea of what they need to do against them in the post-season.

Round two at home is against the University of Calgary or Fraser Valley. It should prove to be an easy warmup before potentially facing the third-ranked Thunderbirds again.

The Bears have as a good a chance as last year — if not better based on conference records — at taking home another banner.

If they have minimal regular season mistakes, they will. If not, they’ll jeopardize the playoff push, lose two of three, and never see a fourth.

The notion is disappointing but unlikely.