By Josh Martin, Sports Editor
It’s that time of year again! The leaves are starting to fall off the trees and Thanksgiving is just around the corner, which means volleyball season! The Royals men’s volleyball team is coming off a very successful year after having won the PACWEST provincial title. This season, they’re looking like a more balanced team rather than a two-man show, after losing some key players at last season’s end.
“With Jeff [Taylor] gone and also Dawson [Kaleb Dawe] we have more of a balanced attack instead of just tossing it up to Jeff the giant. We’re spreading the sets around more and hitting left side, right side, pipes, middles, and all around. All four guys,” said Lucas DeCoste who recently made the switch to the Douglas College men’s volleyball team after playing for two years with the men’s basketball team. DeCoste will join a team that looks to repeat as PACWEST Provincial champions and hopefully go on to win Nationals this year.
“There were a number of factors [in switching to the volleyball team], one of them being I knew some guys on the volleyball team and I wanted to play volleyball straight out of high school. But our volleyball team in high school wasn’t all that great compared to our basketball team. So having a more competitive basketball team, I decided to play basketball first year.
“I came out and had a good summer training camp and made the switch.”
The Royals begin their season with back-to-back games against the Capilano Blues on Friday October 12 and October 13. The women’s team will face the Blues at Capilano on Friday at 6 p.m. and will head home for the home opener at 6 p.m. on Saturday. The men’s team will be facing the Blues at 8 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday.
The men’s soccer team tied the Kwantlen Eagles on Saturday 1–1, and then beat them on Sunday by a score of 2–0. They are currently second in the standings with 17 points, behind the VIU Mariners who are sitting in first position with 18 points. Next weekend they’ll face the TRU Timberwolves on Saturday at 3 p.m. and the UBCO Heat on Sunday at 2 p.m., both games at home.
The women’s soccer team tied the Eagles this past Saturday 1–1 and then tied them again on Sunday 0–0. They are in seventh position in the standings with seven points. They will face the Timberwolves this Saturday at 1 p.m. and the Heat on Sunday at 12 p.m. in Coquitlam.
