The 2023 MCAC Women’s Volleyball Championship ended the day with both semi final matches on Saturday, February 25 played in front of a loud and boisterous house at the host Université de Saint-Boniface (USB) Les Rouges in Winnipeg.
The top seeded USB Les Rouges advanced to the championship final with a four set battle while PUC Pilots made it back to the championship final with a straight set victory in semi final match two.
Both teams will meet in the championship final on Sunday, February 26 at 3 p.m. CT.
#1 USB Les Rouges vs. #4 ACC Cougars
The #1 seed Université de Saint-Boniface (USB) Les Rouges (14-4 regular season record) beat the #4 seed Assiniboine Community College (ACC) Cougars (6-12 regular season record) by a 3-1 (16-25, 25-20, 25-13, 25-16) result in the first semi-final match.
ACC shocked USB in the opening set, jumping out to a 9-5 lead and never trailing from there in a 25-16 victory over the top-seed team.
The second set was even through a 13-13 tie. Les Rouges showed why they are the top seed as they moved ahead 16-13 and the score was never closer than three in a 25-20 win to even the match.
Saint-Boniface dominance continued through the next two sets. In the third, they jumped out to 10-3 and 14-8 leads en route to a 25-13 win and finished the job with a fourth set 25-16 win.
For USB head coach Evan Turenne, the first set loss was “a story of the parity in the league”.
“They came out firing and it took us a little while to settle in,” he stated after the contest. “We talk a lot about mindset and once we were able to settle in, that was the message after that first set – let’s quit having an individual mindset and start getting back to our team first mentality.”
Cougars head coach Kevin Neufeld was proud of his team’s performance. ‘We started off real well and maybe they had a little bit of nerves coming in as the favourites but they took it to us pretty good after set one,” And Neufeld continued, “We made good progress this season. We’re proud of the fact people have to play pretty hard to beat us. We made progress and we’re looking forward to next season already.”
Turenne is excited by the prospect of playing Sunday to defend the title his team won a year ago.
“That’s the goal – get to the final and there is a chance. Whether it is CMU or Providence, there is so much parity in the league this year. We know we’ll have our hands full tomorrow but hopefully they can kind of beat each other up here today,” he said with a smile.
Player of the Match for USB was middle Bendu Dukuly while setter Brooke Schoobaert was selected for ACC.
#2 PUC Pilots vs. #3 CMU Blazers
In the other semi-final, the #2 Providence University College (PUC) Pilots and #3 Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) Blazers renewed their rivalry with the Pilots coming on top in a three set sweep victory (25-14, 25-16, 25-23).
The two teams battle to two five setters at the end of the regular season this year but Providence did not allow another maximum set match as they held the lead throughout all three sets.
PUC’s head coach and 2022-23 MCAC Coach of the Year Kyle Guenther summed it up, “We had a clean game and executed throughout. We have not seen that all year and especially against a tough competitive CMU team.”
For the first two sets, PUC (9-9 regular season record) had all the momentum and in the third looked to be again as they held a 12-5 and 21-14 before the Blazers (7-11 regular season record) pushed back and almost completed the comeback in the set before falling 25-23 to end the match.
CMU’s head coach Jayme Menzies said afterwards, “We have a young team of first and second year players with a bunch of phenomenal athletes. When we show up mentally, we can beat anyone and pretty exciting to see this group grow in the future.”
For Providence they now match up against the number one seed and nationally ranked USB Les Rouges. Guenther commented on the championship task at hand, “It was a big boost to win this match. This gym is hard to play at the best of time and we know it will be an uphill battle. If we play like this, we will push them and we can beat them.”
Player of the Match for PUC was setter Amanda Bergen while middle Brooklyn De Jong was named for CMU.
2023 MCAC Women’s Volleyball Championship
Hosted by: Université de Saint-Boniface (USB); Central Time listed
Saturday, February 25
4 p.m. Semi Final: #1 USB Les Rouges 3 #4 ACC Cougars 1
6 p.m. Semi Final: #2 PUC Pilots 3 #3 CMU Blazers 0
Sunday, February 26
3 p.m. Women’s Championship Final: #1 USB Les Rouges vs. #2 PUC Pilots
Live webcast for all Championship matches at: youtube.com/lesrougesUSB
– 1st semi final match written by Resby Coutts
