Jason Mendes (13) contributed 13 points off the bench in a comeback win over Fanshawe (Feb. 15)//Photo by Elia Koolsbergen

Mohawk’s men’s volleyball team will be travelling to Nipissing University in North Bay for this year’s Ontario Colleges’ Athletic Association (OCAA) Championships Feb. 23-25.

“We’re looking for revenge,” said Mohawk’s right-side Justin Scapinello about participating in his second provincial championships. “We lost in the semi-finals last year and we don’t want to go down that easy this year.”

The team earned their berth in the tournament after defeating La Cité Collégiale in straight sets (25-20, 25-21 and 25-19) in an OCAA crossover game on Saturday (Feb. 18).

Mohawk found an offensive rhythm that over powered La Cité and combined a well-executed game with a great defensive plan against one of the province’s leading scorers, Keith Marier.

Mohawk’s left-side, Ian Cameron, said the solid effort was really important for his team’s confidence heading into next week.

“I’d say we’ve been coming off a little bit of a lull – our starters,” he said. “So, we had a chance to really come out here and fight the adversity and we did that and we came out firing right from the beginning and obviously the result was successful.”

Saturday’s game was the first matchup for Mohawk and La Cité this season, leaving Mohawk’s head coach, Matthew Schnarr, only video to be able to scout their opponent. Schnarr said his game-plan was to stop Marier and have other players try and score. The Mountaineers held La Cité’s leading scorer to eight total points, well below his season average.

Schnarr added that the sweep of La Cité was the most consistent game his team has played in the past couple of months. After back-to-back losses to the OCAA’s West Division’s top ranked teams, Nipissing and Humber, Schnarr said his team looked tired and decided to give them a rest from practice before their game against Fanshawe (Feb. 15).

Fanshawe defeated the Mountaineers earlier in the season and were entering the Fennell Gymnasium needing a win to finish ahead of Sheridan and Redeemer in the West Division.

“We all know what they did to us at the beginning of the season,” said Mohawk’s middle Mike Douglas, who contributed 11 points coming off the bench against Fanshawe. “We all hold that little grudge and basically we knew that our fate was set but theirs wasn’t quite. So, we knew we had something to play for.”

The Fanshawe game was the last regular season game for the Mountaineers, and having no bearing on the standings for Mohawk; it allowed Schnarr to play a lot of players that hadn’t received much playing time throughout the season. After dropping the first two sets to Fanshawe, it was the bench players that showed they’ve earned their time on the floor pulling Mohawk all the way back to a five-set comeback win (22-25, 17-25, 27-25, 25-21 and 15-13).

“To be honest, our bench deserved playtime,” said Mohawk’s left-side Justin DesRoche. “We’ve been working really hard, beating our starters in practice, and gameplay all comes from practice.”

DesRoche said he stays ready on the bench by watching the plays to determine where the ball will be going so when his name is called he can react appropriately.

Jason Mendes is another player that stepped up in the comeback win over Fanshawe, scoring 13 points. Mendes is trying to prove to his coaches that he is ready to take that next step into a starting role. The first-year middle sees no reason why his team can’t return from North Bay without a gold medal.

“I think we can win it,” he said. “We definitely have the caliber to win it. We’re 14 guys – 16 guys deep and we all can play the game and we all can win.”

After the win over La Cité, Cameron gave credit to the bench players that won Mohawk their match versus Fanshawe saying it was the effort of those players that helped “drive their energy.”