Cougars grew in 2012-13
Winning easier than expected
Todd Colin Vaughan
Sports Editor
Cougars athletics have recently finished off their first season in the Canada West division of Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS).
While many pundits wrote off the Cougars inaugural season as a development year, the success of the season suggests otherwise — or at least more growth than what was expected.
While, like any season, there were some lowlights, the success all the Cougars teams experienced far outweighs the tough times.
Crowchild Classic
The Crowchild Classic was the most publicized event of the 2013-2014 Cougars hockey season.
On Feb. 7, 4,275 fans packed the ‘dome to watch the Cougars take on their cross-town rivals, the University of Calgary Dinos. The event was attended by Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi — who, between the women’s and men’s games, declared the Dinos winners of the event.
This was perhaps premature considering that the Cougars men would go on to defeat the Dinos 2-1.
Volleyball Final Four
In a season where no one expected post-season success, the Cougars women’s volleyball team did the unthinkable and made it to the Canada West Final Four.
Sandra Lamb, coach of the Cougars, was very impressed with her squad.
“We always strive to be the best program around and, being such an unknown coming into this year, we didn’t know where we would fit in,” she said. “We ended up really competing and set a really high standard for our- selves.”
Hopefully the Cougars can carry this success into next season.
Personal success
Along with team success came great individual strides for student athletes at MRU.
Colton DeMan — a second team Canada West volleyball all- star — had the play of the season for MRU with his save that was published online in Sports Illustrated and fellow volleyballer Carolyn O’Dwyer was named Canada West Rookie of the Year after leading her squad through the playoffs.
Hopefully these personal successes will lead to team success in the 2013-14 academic year.