Pandas earn trip to volleyball nationals
Eryn Orysiuk was playing in her final home game as a University of Alberta Panda on Sunday — and even a bad knee injury she was determined to not make it her last game ever.
The Pandas setter had an incredible performance against the Trinity Western Spartans in Game 3 of their Canada West semifinal series at the Saville Community Sports Centre.
It was pure gutsy.
The Pandas played with heart and determination and they pulled through with a thrilling three-set victory (25-17, 27-25, 26-24) to earn a 2-1 series victory.
Alberta has battled all kinds of adversity dealing with major injuries all year long.
The injuries they’ve dealt with may be insurmountable for some teams, but the Pandas continue to persevere.
The series win is extra sweet. It’s the first time the Pandas have beat TWU in a playoff series in 10 years. The victory also clinches the Pandas a spot in the 2018 U Sports national championship next month in Laval, Que.
With the injuries, the Pandas have had to rely on some younger players to step up and a trio of Pandas stepped up big.
Erin Corbett led the Pandas with 15 kills, while Kory White had 12 and rookie outside hitter Julia Zonneveld had seven kills. Corbett also had three aces. Veteran middle Shauny Hogg chipped in with seven kills and four aces.
“Today was a big day for us. Everyone knew how important it was. This whole experience has made us stronger as a team,” said Orysiuk, who had 40 assists, 15 digs, three aces and two digs in the win.
Alberta and TWU went toeto-toe in the opening set and the Pandas were finally able to go on a 5-0 run to take a 20-15 lead in the set and would finish strong in the opening set win.
TWU dominated the second set and led virtually the entire way. They had Alberta on the ropes and led as much as 16-8 in the set, but the Pandas rallied. They took their first lead of the set at 25-24 and would pull out the 27-25 set win. In the third set, TWU once again led for a good portion of the set, but the Pandas kept within striking distance and eventually took the set 26-24.
When the winning point was scored for the Pandas, head coach Laurie Eisler was overcome with emotion.
“We knew our character was being tested big time, not only this weekend, but the entire season. I know I have a bunch of fighters on this team and there is no challenge this team is going to back down from,” Eisler said. “We had to struggle for a long time this season, and we’ve dealt with a lot. It’s enabled us to get through this and any time we got knocked down, we’ve got back up and get right back in the fight.”
After going a decade without beating TWU in a playoff series (0-8), the Pandas looked strong in their series opener, but in Game 2, they struggled. They had to respond with their playoff lives at stake and they did it in dramatic fashion.
“We were very disappointed (Saturday), but we still had a chance, we didn’t give up hope,” Eisler said. “Maybe this was part of destiny giving us another chance to learn. You learn so much from your losses. We got exposed and didn’t handle our frustration well on Saturday, but today we dealt with it so much better, and that’s because we went though all the day before. There’s a special quality in this team. They have incredible fight and determination and I wanted it so badly for them to have a chance to go to nationals.” Quadruple heartbreak: The Alberta Pandas hockey team won’t get a chance to defend their national championship and this one will sting. One night after losing 2-1 in overtime to the Manitoba Bisons, the Pandas lost a 1-0 heartbreaker in quadruple OT.
Jordyn Zacharias was the overtime hero, scoring at the 13:40 mark of the fourth OT period.
Zacharias took a feed from Venla Hovi and beat Pandas netminder Kirsten Chamberlin, who was outstanding, making 34 saves in the loss.