The 2022-23 Manitoba Colleges Athletic Conference (MCAC) volleyball season had four teams compete in a highly competitive and entertaining regular season to earn a chance to hoist the conference championship trophy in 2023. Université de Saint-Boniface (USB) Les Rouges is the host of this year’s MCAC Volleyball Championship on February 25-26 in Winnipeg.
Les Rouges Assistant Director of Sport and Recreation Eric Lemoine commented about hosting the Championship: “USB is thrilled to be hosting the 2022-23 MCAC volleyball championships. The parity of the league and the high level of play has been most impressive this year, it will surely be a great weekend of competition with berths at CCAA nationals on the line.”
This season saw all four teams compete in 18 regular season matches to determine final playoff seeding.
Semi Final #1: #1 seed Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) Blazers vs. #4 seed Université de Saint-Boniface (USB) Les Rouges – 12 p.m. CT start on Saturday, February 25
This is a rematch from last year’s semi final. The defending and back-to-back champion CMU Blazers won 3-0 against USB and look to repeat the same result in this year’s playoffs.
The Blazers are rolling as they are on a six game match win streak heading into the post-season and also had a season-high eight match win streak earlier this season. They were also first in the regular season with a 16-2 regular season record while reaching a high and currently sitting at number eight spot in the latest Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) national ranking.
CMU led all teams with three All-Conference selections. First year left side/libero Alberta Francisco, third year left side Cameron Gayleard and third year setter Timothy Juvonen. Gayleard and Juvonen were also All Conference selections in 2021-22.
The Blazers hold a 6-0 season series margin over Les Rouges so far this season.
Head coach Don Dulder, in his ninth year, earned 2022-23 Coach of the Year honours and seek to guide the team towards another championship as they won 3-1 versus PUC Pilots in 2022 and a tough five set win over PUC in 2020.
USB has had a tough season in the standings as they finished 2-16 but have played USB tough with a couple four setters at home (L 3-1 on Nov. 12 and Nov. 19) in 2022-23. They will have the hometown fans to cheer them onto an upset result.
Rookie USB’s head coach Connor Markesteyn will look to take the momentum of playing on their home court to their advantage. Third year right side and co-captain Dries Demaré earned an All Conference selection as he was second in MCAC stats with 178 total kills. With an upset win, Les Rouges could make a run to a championship for the first time since winning it all in 2005-06 season.
Semi Final #2: #2 seed Providence University College (PUC) Pilots vs. #3 seed Assiniboine Community College (ACC) Cougars – 2 p.m. CT start on Saturday, February 25
This is another rematch from last year’s semi final. PUC Pilots won 3-1 over ACC in Brandon and would like to replicate the same result in this year’s playoffs.
PUC has won five of the six meetings so far this season against the Cougars as they finished second in the conference standings with a 13-5 record. The Pilots enter on a three match win streak and also had two more three match win streak earlier this season. Providence also had a strong 8-1 record on the road in 2022-23.
PUC’s first year left side Noah Boschman was named the 2022-23 Player of The Year plus also selected as All Conference as he led the league in kills and service aces. Teammate first year middle Sebastian Verdaguer was also an All Conference selection.
Third year PUC’s head coach Cody Quiring wants to improve from being a championship finalist in 2022 and 2020 and win it all with this year’s team while having PUC become the MCAC title holders for the first time since 2019.
The Cougars are led by first year left side Ryden Hargreaves as he was named as All Conference while third in MCAC in kills per set at 3.26. ACC also went 4-5 record away from home this season.
Assiniboine did defeat PUC earlier on the road by a 3-1 result and would like to duplicate and in the process, snap their six match losing streak heading into this match-up.
ACC went 5-13 and improved on their win total from 2021-22. Cougars head coach Joel Small, in his tenth year, has the team focused on the upset against PUC and to make program history with their first-ever championship win this year.
2023 MCAC Men’s Volleyball Championship
Hosted by: Université de Saint-Boniface (USB); Central Time listed
Saturday, February 25
12 p.m. Semi Final: #1 CMU Blazers vs. #4 USB Les Rouges
2 p.m. Semi Final: #2 PUC Pilots vs. #3 ACC Cougars
Sunday, February 26
1 p.m. Men’s Championship Final: Semi Final #1 winner vs. Semi Final #2 winner
Live webcast for all Championship matches at: youtube.com/lesrougesUSB
