There’s no doubt the Douglas College Royals women’s volleyball team entered the 2016-17 seaosn with high expectations.
Last year’s march to the provincial quarterfinals prepared the club for wanting more – even if it meant shouldering that disappointment for some major shifts.
The program appears poised for a breakthrough after getting off to a very strong 8-2 start under new head coach Jeff Ross. But with the exam break and a month sabbatical serving as a bookmark following this weekend’s meeting with first-place Vancouver Island, the hope is the Royals will use their achievements as a starting point for the second half.
Ross, who served as an assistant coach at UBC and coached Team B.C. the past three years, said his first handful of months in the program have gone very smoothly.
“It’s gone pretty well, there have been no surprises,” said Ross. “It was pretty easy in a sense of what we’ve set out to accomplish and how they’ve gotten to know what I expect.”
Last week’s split with the Camosun Chargers was a case in point. On Friday, a three-game win streak came to a halt as the visiting Chargers surprised Douglas 3-1. It served as a wake-up call for the squad, which a day later responded with a 3-0 win.
“It was a total team effort and a good bounce-back on Day 2,” said Ross. “We just didn’t execute as we would have liked (Friday) but put it back together for the next game.”
Currently ranked No. 5 in the nation, Douglas has a good mix of veterans and newcomers.
Leftside hitter and co-captain Juliana Penner has taken another step in the elite group of PacWest players this year, sitting third overall in kills at 3.15 per set, and fifth in aces, with 0.43 per set, to stand second overall in offensive stats.
But those numbers only tell part of her contribution, said Ross.
“She doesn’t worry too much about the leaderboard,” he said of the fourth-year player from Surrey. “Juliana is, like all our players, all about seeing how we can play our best each set.”
Co-captain and libero Claudia Corneil, who sits fourth in the PacWest in digs, is another key returnee who has helped the team take another step from last year.
Penticton native Georgia Hurry, meanwhile, owns the second-best stat line for blocks, with a set average of 1.05 per, followed by Surrey’s Autumn Davidson and Brazilian Vania Oliveira.
Third-year hitter/libero Vicki Schley joins Penner and Oliveira in the league’s offensive top-10.
This year’s roster also includes freshmen Rizelle Uy of New West, a backup libero, and Burnaby’s Mackenzie Hutchison, a right-side hitter.
Both have made strong contributions off the bench and added a layer of depth which will serve the Royals well when the season relaunches in January.
“Rizelle sees the court so well, she’s a serving specialist and substitute libero who is gaining valuable experience coming in from high school,” said Ross. “Both players are intense, great teammates who are getting use to the speed of play at the college level.”
Last year’s fourth-place finish, which also saw the club upset in the provincial quarterfinals by University of the Fraser Valley, remains a yardstick for this year’s returning players. With only one berth for B.C. to the nationals on the table, the Royals – who have never won a league title – feel it is within their reach.
“The team can always improve in a number of areas, it’s not a case of us just needing to tweak one or two things,” said Ross. “We are like every other team, our focus is to get better and be a more balanced crew going forward.”
