Upstart Capilano University surprised the nationally No. 2-ranked Douglas College Royals 3-2 at the PacWest provincial men's volleyball championships.
The five-set loss eliminated last year's Canadian Colleges' silver medallist from a return to the national championships.
In the PacWest semifinal, Douglas took the first and third sets, while Capilano went to the two-point tiebreaker in the other three sets, including a 16-14 victory in the final set on Friday.
Camosun then came back from a 2-0 deficit to steal the bronze medal from the regular season champion in another five-setter.
"(Capilano) played really good volleyball through the second semester," said Douglas head coach Brad Hudson. "They had wins over VIU and Camosun, and obviously the last one against us, too."
While the Douglas lineup was not at 100 per cent, and there were scorekeeping issues in the semifinal match with Cap, Hudson was making no excuses.
"It's disappointing, for sure," he said. "We had a very successful year and improvement from a lot of guys - everything you want going into the provincials. But to go and lose the first game by two points and then the other by two points, you can't invest so much as we do without it hurting a lot."
Against Capilano, Douglas registered a combined 70 kills, including 20 individual winners by PacWest first team all-star Andrew McWilliam.
Andrew Robson also registered 17 kills, while Nick Bridle added another 15 to the scoresheet.
In the bronze-medal match, McWilliam again led at the net with 19 kills.
Drew Ruby added 11 more in just three sets.
The Royals will lose Sam Shaw and Erich Meyer to graduation next season, while fourth-year setter Rex Fenton has also indicated he will not be back for a fifth season.
"We'll rebuild again," said Hudson, who has already signed three new recruits from the province's top-15 list. "To be honest, I see nothing changing. That's the expectation."
In PacWest women's volleyball, Douglas lost in three sets to third-seed Columbia Bible College in the quarter-finals. Burnaby's Kalena Conners was named the Royals' player of the game.
