Jason Yuen 1. Pandas hockey, Canada West champions
The only thing better than winning a Canada West championship, is sweeping the series on away ice as home-team fans — if there were any — sit and watch the wrong team carry the trophy.
Abby Soyko’s two overtime winners on March 7 and 8, outdone only by Grace Glover’s 1.00 goals against average, forced the the conference favourite British Columbia Thunderbirds into a startling, and slightly embarrassing, 0-2 final weekend. Even worse, by most accounts, the Thunderbirds should have won.
Said fact is not lost on head coach, Howie Draper, and had the Pandas maintained some offensive zone control and persistent puck possession, perhaps he would be a little happier with his own team’s performance — aside from Glover’s goaltending, of course.
Glover > Thunderbirds.
2. Pandas volleyball, Canada West champions
Undefeated for 23 games, Canada West champs, only two rocky sets that head coach Carolyn O’Dwyer feels are easy enough to fix, and the Pandas now have an easier time at the U Sports playoffs this weekend.
They’re first set to play the number eight seeded Memorial Sea-Hawks on March 14, an easy warmup considering the conference they hail from.
Side note, Canada West volleyball recruits a significant amount of incoming talent compared to other conferences, and the drop in skill level east of Manitoba is obvious, even from here. Exhibit A — the Pandas lost the U Sports championship last season to who? You guessed it, the even more west Thunderbirds.
In all seriousness, the Pandas have had an excellent season (.871 and 27-4 overall). Two set losses to the Thunderbirds aside, they’re in a good position to turn that 23-game win-streak into 26 for U Sports gold.
3. Golden Bears volleyball, Canada West final four
23 going on 24.
Missed Canada West three-peat aside, the Golden Bears — who came in second after a three set loss to the Winnipeg Wesmen in the final four — are on the their way to their 24th straight national appearance.
Which players will they start? It’s a bit unclear.
Owen Harris (.600 hitting percentage against Winnipeg) and Dylan Martens (.365 in the semis) have each had solid rookie and sophomore campaigns.
But if outside hitter Jacob Sargent (.000 against Winnipeg), a notable scratch until recently, can get his game together, then he’ll be a dangerous player U Sports will hate to see coming.
If not, then maybe a three set loss wasn’t far off.
The same can be said for the whole team, really.
4. Pandas Basketball, Canada West bronze
The rankings naturally progress from first place, second place, and now third place.
Cue Pandas basketball with their bronze medal, 83-63 game — even if said medals weren’t actually ready in time — to send Fraser Valley home on March 7 and end their season.
It’s hard to feel bad when the Pandas narrowly missed the U Sports championship themselves, thanks to a loss in the semis from the second place Thunderbirds.
Only thing worse might be playing — and losing — to the number one seeded Saskatchewan Huskies, as the number eight, and lowest, seeded team in the final eight. Oh wait.
5. Golden Bears hockey, Canada West semifinals
A loss in the semis was unexpected.
A loss coming off a 6-0 win the night prior that forced game three, was even more.
There were the usual favourites carrying each playoff series — Tyler Palmer, Brett Hyland, Aidan de la Gorgendiere, Connor McClennon, Sean Tschigerl, and Marc Lajoie. But there were also key guys coming in clutch to force the Bears as far as they did go — Joel Sexsmith, Eric Florchuk, Adam Hall, Alex Thacker, Josh Prokop, to name a few.
Ideally, we’d like to sit here and list the whole roster, and there were certainly playoff games where we could — round one, game three, or round two, game two. But a slow out of the gate game, like the one that sent them home on March 2, makes the list a little shorter.
Make no mistake, this was an excellent team with skilled players, but inconsistent games do not fair well with do-or-die playoff series.
