Nick Del Bianco and Steven Marshall were named Canada West first and second team all-stars, respectively, for the Trinity Western Spartans men’s volleyball team.
The pair, both left-side hitters, also helped Trinity Western to a second-place finish at the Canada West championships over the weekend, which qualified them for the CIS national championships.
The Spartans are seeded second behind the Brandon Bobcats — who beat Trinity Western 3-1 (25-21,25-22,23-25,25-15) in Saturday’s conference final — and open the nationals against the seventh-seed Western Mustangs on Friday (March 1) in Laval, Que.
Trinity Westen had rallied from 0-2 down to win their Canada West semifinal match — and qualify for nationals — 3-2 (23-25,18-25,25-19,26-24,17-15) against UBC, but could not duplicate the feat the next night against Brandon.
The third-year Del Bianco, who was named to the CIS All-Rookie Team in 2010-11, finished the regular season sixth in the conference with 3.65 kills per set and fifth in Canada West with 4.30 points per set. He also led the conference in aces, with 0.41 per set.
For Marshall, this is the third time in the last four years he has been named a Canada West all-star. He was a first-team all-star in 2009-10 and then, after taking a year off, was a second team all-star in 2011-12. This season, Marshall averaged 2.88 kills per set and 2.32 digs per set.