Pandas volleyball advance stellar season with Canada West gold

The would-be, must watch playoff game for women’s volleyball in Canada West was supposed to arrive in the semis from the Manitoba Bisons, not the previously swept, newly awakened University of British Columbia (UBC) Thunderbirds on March 8.

So naturally, there wasn’t much to worry about.

“Thing is, in this conference, there’s a lot of really good teams, so UBC is no small feat,” University of Alberta Pandas volleyball head coach, Carolyn O’Dwyer said.

A warning that, if listened to, could have spared the Pandas that awkward fifth set and no set-losses in the final four.

“I thought they were pretty aggressive, especially behind the service line. They had some different people come in and do a really good job that we maybe hadn’t seen this year,” O’Dwyer said.

“So all credit to them. I thought they played really well overall.”

But there’s a reason the Pandas are still riding the 23-game win streak — now Canada West champions for the 12th time — and it likely has to do with the U Sports championship they lost last season.

“This is awesome, and we’re gonna celebrate for probably about 20, 30 minutes here, and then really be on to the next,” O’Dwyer said.

“Our goal always is to win a national championship.”

If the Pandas can clean up some nerves, solidify their defence, and mix up some more plays, than they can. If not, they’ll see more set-losses than the two they faced in the final four — both in the championship game — that resulted from a “little bit of hesitance and miscommunication.”

“I think we started a little bit activated. Probably some serves that were kind of sailing and some areas that we don’t necessarily want,” O’Dwyer said post-semifinal win.

“They did a really good job, especially with their middle, so we did not defend that well,” O’Dwyer mentioned. Later adding that she “didn’t think our defence, honestly, was very good.”

A struggling defensive structure followed the Pandas throughout the whole post-season, but is this the point where it changes?

Realistically, it has to be.

“We just have to trust everything we have done all year and go down playing aggressively. And I don’t think we were doing it before.”

That is until the fifth set rolled around and the Pandas doubled-down on digs to keep the win-streak alive and free, reminding the Thunderbirds why they went 0-2 with Alberta in the regular season.

“As a team, we always say, be brave. So that was a big message.”

“I did think [defence] got better as the match progressed, so that was awesome, but yeah, lots of room for improvement,” O’Dwyer added.

“Improvement” in the sense that they have to play like top dogs again. More Canada West champions, less losing two out five sets.

The Pandas are off to the U Sports Championship on March 14, where they’ll play the Memorial Sea-Hawks in round one — a healthy warmup before facing the real challenge of other Canada West teams.

“You’ve seen the level of Canada West teams, it could be anyone’s championship. So we got to really have our eyes on the prize.”

Three stars of the series