Fouth place for both men's and women's volleyballers, but hosting gets high marks

Despite being the host team, both Fanshawe's volleyball teams lost their bronze medal games at the OCAA championships.

However even though the home side lost, the championship weekend itself was a win for the college.

“From an organizational standpoint it was a huge success,” said Mike Lindsay, Fanshawe's manager of athletics. “The accolades are still coming in about Fanshawe's hosting capabilities and what a great job we did, it's remarkable. Some are saying it's just like the nationals and that the athletes and coaches thought it was the best ever.”

The college, which had never hosted the volleyball provincial championship before, has a lot of people to thank according to Lindsay, mostly those who worked behind the scenes to help pull the event off. But on top of that, the fans contributed a lot to making the event a success.

“Our gate attendance was great,” Lindsay continued. “Our revenue targets were beyond what we were expecting, the crowds were great and there were no problems at all- it was just a super event overall.”

But the good side couldn't quite overshadow the bad since the college's ultimate goal was to medal. The women's team fell 3-1 to a strong Mohawk squad and the men's team lost 3-1 to Humber despite having started strongly.

“The women's team did well,” said Jonathan Hillis, co-captain of the men's team and FSU VP of Athletics. “They were in there ranked fifth, so they did better than their ranking in finishing fourth, so we can't complain about that. They had a stellar season and they're probably the best team I've seen them have in the past four years.

“On the men's side I think we performed well considering the circumstances we were put through, losing our two top players and having lost another for half a semester [to injury].”

But for the men, Hillis believes their downfall had to do with emotions, mainly that though they started strong, they let the guard slip, and tempers boil to the surface.

“I don't know if it's that we run on pure emotions, so sometimes it's tough to get back in when we're down,” Hillis explained. “I think that was evident in the semi's where we were up and got a couple of bad calls here and there, and for the remainder of the game it pretty much set the tone of how we played.”

And home court wasn't a factor, he continued, since the team was unbeaten on the road in five contests but struggled to stay even at home.

But losses aside, Both Hilis and Lindsay believe that the tournament showed that the college not only has the facilities to host an event of this size, but also the know-how.

“I think that the event that we put together was top-notch,” Hillis stressed. “I've been to the event for the past four provincials and I think by far this was the best one. I just think that we had a little bit of everything from the other provincials and just stepped it up a notch- which in a sense may have set a tone for provincials in the upcoming years.”

And the team can only get better.

“The first year students gained a lot of expertise and experience by competing in a provincial championships,” Lindsay continued. “For the athletes who it was their last time, I feel sad that they didn't end up with a medal because now they're moving on to their careers and that was their last kick at the can.”


Falcons bring home the hardware

Katie Seys:
- Named CCAA All-Canadian
- OCAA First team All-star for west/central west divison
- OCAA Championship tournament all-star
- Tournament player of the game

Brittney Nurse:
- OCAA player of the game

Jonathan Hillis:
- OCAA second team all-star west/central west

Ryan Corby:
- OCAA second-team all-star west/central west division
- OCAA championship tournament all-star team
- Tournament player of the game

Jordan McTavish:
- OCAA second team all-star west/central west division

Rob Thorpe:
- Tournament player of the game