MVB Recap
In a battle of the two top teams in the PACWEST, the Avs ran their record to 7-0 with a commanding 3-1 home court win Friday night over the visiting Camosun Chargers. Despite the heavy snow falling outside, a capacity crowd witnessed a strong home performance from the Avs, who had been on the road for their previous four matches. Diego Policarpo continued to amaze the fans with an electric 32-point performance comprised of 26 kills, 4 aces and 2 blocks, while Albert Francisco and Cade Schindel chipped in with 10 points each as the Avs offence clipped along at .430 efficiency. Setters Boston Thiessen (31) and Brett Kester (9) combined for 40 assists and strong serving was the theme of the night as the Avs totalled 13 aces in the win.
"Other than the 3rd set this was probably our best performance of the PACWEST regular season," said coach Cisco Farrero. "I thought our servers executed the gameplan at a high level and our offence had its best statistical match of the year. Diego Policarpo had one of the most complete and dominant matches of his career to carry our offense, but we were quite good at each skillset. I'm proud of the complete team performance."
With the snow finally tapering off outside Saturday afternoon the Avs completed the weekend sweep of the Chargers with a 3-0 victory to ensure the Avs will remain in first place in the PACWEST into the new year. Once again Diego Policarpo led all Avs scorers with 24 points, but the Avs Middle blockers, Ethan Braam and Luke Margenau combined for 14 points. Setter Boston Thiessen (34 assists, 1 ace, 1 block) and libero Reece Clarke (2.6 passer rating, 6 digs) added strong performances in the win.
"Saturday wasn't quite as clean of an offensive match as Friday's," Farrero said. "Camosun was able to block us better, but we still were able to get the job done. Our mental toughness was apparent because whenever the Chargers made a push, it felt like we had the answer for it. Our serve receive was strong, we didn't give Camosun many aces and stayed in system for most of the match. To get both wins this weekend over a strong team is important for us. We want to finish as high as we can in the standings so it's all about getting as many wins as we can."
