Niagara College drops CCAA volleyball opener: Madelyn Berg player of match

Madelyn Berg picked up right where she left off.

The 19-year-old St. Catharines native was named her team’s player of the match Thursday as the host Niagara College Knights women’s volleyball team opened the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association championships with a 3-0 loss (25-14, 25-15 and 25-20) to the defending national champion Vancouver Island University Mariners.

The Governor Simcoe alumnus was coming off a season where she was named to the Ontario Colleges Athletic Association All-Rookie Team and picked up a player of the match award while helping the Knights to a silver medal at the OCAA championships.

“She is constantly one of the hardest-working athletes in our gym,” Niagara head coach Natasha Spaling said. “She is so coachable, she listens super well and every day she wants to get better.

“That’s how you earn awards like that.”

The 5-foot-6 libero earned her award by doing things the right way.

“It was just supporting my teammates and the only other thing I could do is catch every ball that I could and help my team,” the police foundations student said.

She wasn’t expecting to make the all-rookie team and do as well as she did in her freshman season

“I surprised myself a little bit and I didn’t expect to be on the all-rookie team,” the former Niagara Rapids and Waterdown Raiders travel player said. “It was quite a surprise and I was very proud of myself with all the work I put in.”

Berg credited Spaling for her development.

“My coach has helped me a lot during the season and I owe all of my progress to her.”

It didn’t take long for Berg to feel comfortable in a Niagara College uniform.

“From the moment that I stepped on the court, I knew that that’s where I was meant to be,” she said.

Berg knows she is far from a finished product as a volleyball player.

“There’s a lot of skills that I need to work on,” she said. “I would definitely say serve receive and other skills.”

Berg will be graduating this spring and Spaling will be sad to see her go.

“We will miss her, but we have an excellent team so hopefully getting a chance to play with her, she’s rubbed off on other athletes and they will continue to get better.”

Spaling would have liked to see her team open the CCAA championships in a little better form Thursday night.

“They are a very good team and we were just hoping for a bit higher level of play on our side but honestly, we just made a few too many unforced errors,” she said. “I’m happy with the beginning of our sets because we really pushed them to play and come to us.

“We’re happy with that and now we just have to take a look at the end of our sets.”

Spaling loves when her team gets a chance to play top-calibre squads.

“That’s high-level volleyball and that is why we are here,” the first-year head coach said. “We want to play excellent teams, play our best volleyball against teams that play their best volleyball and see what happens.”

Berg felt the Mariners came as advertised.

“We definitely expected them to bring some heat towards us and honestly we are just happy to be here and put up a fight as best we can.”

It was business as usual for the Knights Thursday.

“It didn’t feel like the Canadian championships,” Berg said. “We feel we belong here. We are in the gym every day and this is our home.”

Next up for Niagara is a 3 p.m. match Friday against the loser of a Thursday night match between the Briercrest College and the College Bois-De-Boulogne.

Coverage of the Niagara Knights is made possible with the support of the Niagara College Department of Athletics & Recreation. For more information, please visit www.goknights.ca