Golden Bears sideline Jacob Sargent and Matt Shand in round one, but was it the right call?

“Jacob Sargent, I would say, was a victim to match flow and a decision I made. It’s not that he was doing anything wrong,” University of Alberta Golden Bears volleyball head coach, Brock Davidiuk said.

What decision? Who knows. What is obvious is that Sargent had a tough weekend against the high-ranking Trinity Western Spartans prior to playoffs and Dylan Martens stepped up to fill the third-year outside hitters role, and it worked.

Martens played some of his best volleyball of the year, carrying it over into round two against the Calgary Dinos on February 28, and thoroughly impressing his head coach.

On the other side of this, Sargent, despite being benched, was court side, doing exactly what someone in the leadership group should be doing.

“Sarge is one of our captains, and he’s done an exceptional job in making sure that losing that spot hasn’t taken away from his leadership or the team.”

“Matt Shand’s been battling third, fourth role all season, and he’s dealt with that really well,” Davidiuk said when asked about Shand.

“If you’ve seen him hit the ball, he’s a health risk [because of] how hard he hits. So that makes us get ready to block against really strong attackers.”

Sure, the Dinos were strong on the attack, but aside from starting Louis Kunstmann on right-side and sidelining setter Zach Durrant, their underwhelming lineup stayed fairly consistent. No doubt a factor that pulled Owen Harris and Martens off the bench in favour of playoff privileges, at least in round one.

“Owen’s been kind of been brewing all season. We knew that he would be able to play at this level. I’ve been watching Owen since he was 14 and you can tell the guy wanted to be playing on this team since he was a little kid. He hasn’t disappointed,” Davidiuk said.

“As a first-year middle, he’s doing some pretty exceptional things. But I do expect pretty exciting, exceptional things from him, so it’s nice to see him to be able to contribute. He’s attacking really high, and his volleyball IQ for his age is very high. So, he’s a dog out there, which is fun to watch.”

He’s also six foot, nine inches tall, and despite the talent the Bears will inevitably face on the road to Canada West gold, you’ll be hard pressed to find a group of blockers ready for that kill.

At three inches shorter, Martens isn’t one to mess around with either, but there’s a lot to work on before round two as well.

“He didn’t have his best serving game, but that’s something that we have been working on with him. His journey has been understanding how to get more power out of his attack, which he was,” Davidiuk said.

Sub Shand in on the serve to get an ace or two, and it’s an easy enough problem to get around. After all, Isaac Heslinga and Liam Espedido can’t serve the whole game, much to the Bears’ displeasure.

The Bears’ ace leaders, Heslinga and Espedido, followed closely by starting setter Luke Weddell, brought the service errors down to normal, forcing the Dinos to go 0-Alberta for six sets, over what could have been a three game series.

“You can tell there was something in Isaac this week, where he really was just hitting the ball a lot harder. And I thought he was really going for it. He’s a really smart player, but he’s also got a good shoulder on him,” Davidiuk said.

“Liam just was finding the right angles. He’s a really strong attacker as well. And so I think they’re two senior professional guys for us. They’ve been in a lot of playoff matches, so they knew what to expect.”

Yes, but they also provide some guidance to what would otherwise be a young court. Though not young for long.

Truth is, as the reigning U Sports champions, a quarter final series against the Dinos wasn’t going to send the Bears packing, and they knew that. They also know a Canada West gold medal game isn’t the same, playoffs are for vets, and Sargent is likely to return in high stakes games.

“We’re the Bears, so we tend to have pretty deep and strong lineups.”

Three stars of the series