The Cambrian women\u2019s game was scheduled for 2 p.m. after being on the road for over eight hours and not arriving at the hotel until around 2 a.m. Jillian Vallier led Cambrian to a 3-1 win with 13 points.<\/p>\n
The men kept their game close, but with just a little over half of their squad making the road trip, they lost the last two sets and the match 3-1. Isaac Claveau was a beast, leading the team with 11 kills and 13 points.<\/p>\n
The women\u2019s team waited on the bus after the men finished their game and got changed. Coach Dale Beausoleil, head coach of the women\u2019s team, says he has loved coaching at Cambrian for the last 27 years because of their attitude.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re awesome. It\u2019s always so fun,\u201d says Beausoleil. He looked down the bus and laughed as the girls broke out singing a Britney Spears song. He credits the role of a coach as, \u201cMaking a difference in their lives. Making some changes and helping them enjoy college.\u201d<\/p>\n
The men piled in about 20 minutes after the women. There was enough room on the bus for every player to have their own seat. Coaches made sure that every player was aboard so that no one gets left behind. The women\u2019s energy traveled through the bus, even to the men, feeling down from their loss.<\/p>\n
As the travelling begins the bus driver turns out the lights just past 6 p.m. after the sun set. This signaled the beginning of the two-hour drive. It was quiet, every one focused in on the movie Neighbors, or had fallen asleep.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/vpms1.humber.smartmanagedservers.com\/sweatspring2017\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/41\/2017\/04\/LAURAEDIT.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
On the Road, Windsor to London,
\nDowntime<\/b><\/p>\n
The two teams travel together every weekend if they aren\u2019t scheduled for games in Sudbury. They travel on one bus together, choosing movies, staying in the same hotels, eating together. The girls sat near the back of the bus, while the men sit closer to the front. Small TV screens are at almost every set of seats and blankets and pillows fill empty spots. Some athletes bring along snacks, or just wait for one of the many pit stops along the way between travels. Back-to-back games means the team just has to worry about travel on the weekend as opposed to during the week, when jobs, schoolwork and practice are juggled simultaneously.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a full-time job,\u201d says Kathryn Webb, a second-year player.<\/p>\n
\u201cHalf of my schooling is online, half of it\u2019s in class so I work during day, do your school in the middle, and then you have your practice at night. Then the next day you have your class, work, then practice. And every weekend you\u2019re gone,\u201d she says. Webb\u2019s from Whitefish, Ont. She\u2019s one of the Liberos on the team because of her skills in the back court.\u00a0 <\/span>Libero is a player that focuses on digging out spikes at the back of the court.<\/p>\n \u201cI work too,\u201d says Hayley Chisholm, a fourth-year co-captain. \u201cI go to class when I have to and work when I have free time. My boss is super good with my schedule,\u201d she says. Chisholm, from Sudbury, Ont., plays left side with her powerful spikes and plays at the net.<\/span><\/p>\n Fourth-year co-captain Kailey Bastien laughed and says, \u201cI didn\u2019t even try to get a job.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe hardest part is that we always play double headers so we\u2019re always playing back to back,\u201d says Tim Yu, athletic manager at Cambrian College, \u201cWhereas GTA schools can play one game on a Wednesday and a game on a Friday,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cWhere most students would have a job during the Saturday and Sunday when they have days off\u2026unless [the athletes] find a job that works with their academic schedule during the day, sometimes in between their breaks, they don\u2019t have a part time job,\u201d Yu says.<\/p>\n Although not having money is a hard way to live, the girls agree that being on the team is well worth it and ultimately more important.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s worth it. It\u2019s worth being broke,\u201d Bastien says. \u201cSometimes it sucks really bad because you have no money, but you have something above other people.\u00a0 <\/span>Everyone\u2019s like \u2018we went out partying, we went out shopping, yeah well we won volleyball,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Fanshawe College, London<\/b><\/p>\n The bus didn\u2019t make any pit stops during the two hour drive from Windsor to London so everyone was starving. The teams decided to get dinner, so as we arrived the girls had called ahead booking a table for everyone on the bus at a Jack Astor\u2019s close to the hotel.<\/p>\n On the bus the lights turned on for the people who were sleeping and the movie ended for those who weren\u2019t, which energized a team ready to stretch their legs and grab some dinner. <\/span><\/p>\n Coach Beausoleil says the sudden increase in energy towards the end of the trip is normal.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ll see as soon as we get back to Sudbury the noise elevates, they\u2019re amped, the movie is off and then they start talking and start having fun with each other,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n The bus arrived at a hotel, everyone hopped off the bus creating a log jam in the hotel lobby as they sorted out the room situations. The players dropped their stuff off in their room, climbed back into the bus and made their way to the restaurant.<\/p>\n As 30 hungry people walk into the restaurant pure terror drew across the host\u2019s face as he tried to figure out the seating. The team was directed towards the back where two long tables were beside eachother. As a table of four walked by they stopped and asked \u201cIs this a hockey team?\u201d the girls giggled and the coach says \u201cNo we\u2019re actually volleyball.\u201d As they smiled and walked away the girls wondered how they passed as hockey players. Coincidentally, Bastien played hockey for eight years.<\/p>\n After eating the teams were full and exhausted, and wanted to get back to the hotels to rest.<\/span><\/p>\n With a 1 p.m. game, 5:30 a.m. was not wake-up call they wanted. Especially since it wasn\u2019t on any phone or clock, it was the hotel fire alarm. Both teams were forced outside the hotel in a cold February rain. After waiting for what felt like hours (but was only about 20 minutes), we were let back inside, with an alarm that still rang for at least another 15 minutes.<\/p>\n Game Time Against Fanshawe<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n With the rude awakening, it was going to be a long second day of games for both teams.<\/p>\n The women were hungry for a win to clinch the last playoff spot.<\/p>\n In London, the men\u2019s team climbed into the stands as the women went through warm-ups against Fanshawe. The men knew how important the game was for the women\u2019s season. Cambrian scored the first point of the game when all of a sudden the men in the stands cheered loudly and ripped off their shirts which revealed what was written on their chests \u2013 GO CAMBRIAN. Each player had a letter on their stomach and smile on their face. Even the opposing players on the court couldn\u2019t help but smile. <\/span><\/p>\n By spending nearly every weekend together, staying in the same hotels, eating meals together, close relationships and support develop between players. For some who have had to move away from home and may not be close to their family, the teams bond strongly and quickly.<\/span><\/p>\n After the ladies lost their first set to Fanshawe, they came back to win the next three to take the game 3-1. First-year setter Kendra Muffo tallied 40 assists in the game, all but three for the whole team.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was such a huge weekend for our team,\u201d says Beausoleil. \u201cWin and we keep our playoff hopes alive, lose and were done for the season. We worked way too hard for it to be done. So, we had to beat St. Clair and we had to beat Fanshawe. We did. So, it was pretty impressive, I was pretty proud of them,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n The Fanshawe men\u2019s volleyball team had only one loss all season, and was primed to compete in the CCAA nationals. The men\u2019s team didn\u2019t have much hope heading in, but still played passionately. Isaac Claveau and twin brother Lucas combined for 31 of the team\u2019s 56 total attack attempts.<\/p>\n London to Sudbury (Home)<\/b><\/p>\n The travel back from London to Sudbury was perhaps the most harrowing, it takes a typical five maybe five and half-hours. In white-out conditions, the bus passed four cars that had driven off of the road, and the trip took almost twice as long.<\/p>\n At times, it felt as though the bus leaned from gusts of wind and it was driving on its three side wheels. The athletes seemed like they were happy to finally be back home. It was normal for them to be delayed on the way home, so the energy in the bus escalated the closer they got. Considering their drive to Windsor took a lot longer than expected, the drive home from London back home didn\u2019t seem as bad.<\/p>\n Eventually the Cambrian bus reached the Greyhound station for us sweat <\/i>reporters, but it was too late, we missed our ride home. Most of the players weren\u2019t too concerned about their drive home, they were concerned that we missed our bus to get home and had to stay in a nearby hotel \u2013 and make our way there in three feet of snow with baggage and cameras.<\/p>\n But what it\u2019s all really about for the team and their coach is having a great relationship that helps shape them as they continue with their lives.<\/p>\n \u201cI moved away from home and I hated it until I was friends with all them and I was on the team,\u201d says Samantha Stewart, a first year at Cambrian, and grew up in Newmarket, Ont. \u201cNow I love it.\u201d At first, she says \u201cI hated Sudbury and then I joined the team and I\u2019m like I think I like it now. I\u2019m making so many new friends now and it\u2019s just such a good experience.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n With almost 30 years of experience, coach Beausoleil says he loves to see bonds grow between teams before his eyes.<\/p>\n \u201cThe friendships, how you can help shape some of their lives. There\u2019s so many clich\u00e9s, but it\u2019s so true in sport. And I always remind them you\u2019re in college have fun; you\u2019re only young once. Live in that moment and appreciate it and have fun,\u201d says Beausoleil.<\/p>\n As for the travelling… well that\u2019s not something that will change.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the biggest thing is that you get used to it. I like living up in the north. It\u2019s just what you do, you travel\u2026 It\u2019s not that there\u2019s anything we can do to prepare for it. Other than eat well and sleep well and drink lots of water. There\u2019s really nothing we can do other than you get accustomed to it and get used to it,\u201d says Beausoleil.<\/p>\n Post Season<\/b><\/p>\n The ladies first post-season game was on Sunday February 19 at Georgian College. A cross over game that they took 3-1. The girls took the first set (25-16) then let one go for Georgian (25-17) before coming back for the last two sets (25-14, 25-22). The ladies were off to the quarter-finals the following weekend on Friday February 24 where they took on Niagara. They started off strong winning the first set (25-18) then dropped the last three sets (22-25, 19-25, 15-25) for a final of 3-1 for Niagara. The final game was on Saturday February 25 against Fanshawe. This would end up being their last game in a consolation semifinal. The team lost in a tough 3-2 battle taking the first set (26-24), losing the next two (15-25, 21-25), getting the fourth set (25-20), until Fanshawe took the final set (16-14). An impressive season for a team that didn\u2019t think they would make it to the post-season a couple months before.<\/p>\n How Far Do They Really Go?<\/b><\/p>\n 5,995.5 km. The distance it would take if you were to drive through Canada from St. Johns, N.L. to Vancouver, B.C. They could\u2019ve travelled across Canada with all their away games! That\u2019s how many kilometres they travelled throughout their nine regular season away games and two post-season tournaments. The first regular season game was on October 29, but that was only at Coll\u00e8ge Bor\u00e9al, another college in Sudbury. Their first big travel was on November 18-19 when they went to Mohawk College and Redeemer University College. All their travelling works out to be about 62 straight hours of driving, and that\u2019s all calculated without any traffic. That would be amazing wouldn\u2019t it? Thinking back to the weekend of February 11 to 12 alone it took 10 hours on a drive that should\u2019ve been seven, and to get from London to Sudbury it took about eight hours when it would\u2019ve been about five and a half. That\u2019s Canadian winters for you and living up north. You can never be sure what the weather will be like and have to be prepared for the worst.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Cambrian is a college with over 11,000 full and part-time students in Sudbury. For athletes to compete against the rest of the province, the team travels thousands of kilometres by bus on a weekly basis. sweat travelled with the Cambrian Golden Shield men\u2019s and women\u2019s volleyball teams to St. Clair College in Windsor, then to Fanshawe College in London, then all the way back to Sudbury.<\/p>\n Despite the long travel times ahead of them, the Cambrian Athletics bus is loud and electric. The women\u2019s team needed to win both games against the evenly ranked St. Clair Saints and the Fanshawe Falcons to make it to the playoffs. The men\u2019s team was having a tough season and were not going to make the playoffs, but could play spoiler against a St. Clair team in a three-way tie for the last playoff spot. The last weekend of the regular season promised exciting volleyball.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":645,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,192],"tags":[37,139,62,6,140,53],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/DSC_0357.jpg",995,770,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/DSC_0357-160x160.jpg",160,160,true],"medium":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/DSC_0357-640x495.jpg",640,495,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/DSC_0357-768x594.jpg",696,538,true],"large":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/DSC_0357.jpg",696,539,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/DSC_0357.jpg",995,770,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/DSC_0357.jpg",995,770,false],"td_150x0":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/DSC_0357-150x116.jpg",150,116,true],"td_218x150":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/DSC_0357-218x150.jpg",218,150,true],"td_300x0":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/DSC_0357-300x232.jpg",300,232,true],"td_324x400":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/DSC_0357-324x400.jpg",324,400,true],"td_485x360":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/DSC_0357-485x360.jpg",485,360,true],"td_696x0":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/DSC_0357-696x539.jpg",696,539,true],"td_1068x0":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/DSC_0357.jpg",995,770,false],"td_1920x0":["https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2017\/04\/DSC_0357.jpg",995,770,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"sweatmag","author_link":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/author\/sweatmag\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Cambrian is a college with over 11,000 full and part-time students in Sudbury. For athletes to compete against the rest of the province, the team travels thousands of kilometres by bus on a weekly basis. sweat travelled with the Cambrian Golden Shield men\u2019s and women\u2019s volleyball teams to St. Clair College in Windsor, then to…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":694,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618\/revisions\/694"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humberjournalism.com\/sweatmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}