The Douglas College Royals Men's Volleyball team split home opening weekend games against the Capilano Blues in a re-match of last years PACWEST Championship bronze medal game.
The weekend got off to a rocky start as the Blues defended home court in front of their fans with a straight sets victory, 3-0 over the Royals.
Saturday's contest looked to be much of the same as the Blues took command of the first set and an early 1-0 lead. However, inspired play by the veteran tandem of Jared Collin and Reid Marriott turned the ship around, helping the Royals gain valuable footing in the match and confidence back in their game.
The Royal's momentum would not stop after that as in the third set the Royals led the game by as much as six points and went on to take not only the third set 25-18 but finished the game off in the fourth 25-21, ultimately taking it 3-1.
"I think this weekend we talked a lot about just playing point by point, I think it's really easy to get caught up going up and down. I think in that 1st set we got a little bit caught up with that scoreboard, but near the start of the second and going into the third I thought we were really focused on what phase of the game we were in." Said Head Coach Jay Tremonti.
"When we were serving, our blockers were really keen on what our plan was, our back row was staying loose, and the same thing when we were receiving the ball, I thought our receivers did a really good job playing point by point with a lot of tough service pressure from Cap (Capilano University) tonight."
Douglas and Capilano are now tied for second place in the PACWEST standings with two points. The Royals next home game will be November 1st against the Vancouver Island Mariners.
