VANCOUVER – For the first time since 2014, the Manitoba Bisons have punched their ticket to the Canada West Women’s Volleyball semifinals. Saturday night at War Memorial Gym at UBC, the #6 ranked Bisons completed the weekend sweep of the #3 ranked Thunderbirds with a 3-1 victory (25-22, 18-25, 25-20, 25-22). Raya Surinx led the way for Manitoba with a team-leading 23 kills, 14 digs, along with three aces. Eve Catojo added seven kills while Katreena Bentley supplied 41 assists. Jayde Robertsen and Lucy Borowski each had 11 kills in response for UBC while rookie Issy Robertshaw notched five service aces to compliment her team-leading 26 assists.
“We just stayed in it,” said a visibly emotional Bisons head coach Ken Bentley. “I’m proud of the resilience we showed, I mean they were serving the ball tough and they had us on the ropes and we just found a way to stay in it, found our passing game in the second part of the match there so I’m proud of how we hung in there on serve receives which was really good for us. We just kept hitting the ball and I thought we just defended like crazy so I mean a really good fight against a super tough team obviously so we’re just gratified to be able to move on.”
“There were a few differences tonight, one being Manitoba’s resolve and play in a number of areas was better than ours and they are fully deserving of the win,” commented UBC head coach Doug Reimer. “It’s not on any one play but they got some outstanding performances from a number of their players, not just offensively but defensively and we just didn’t match it.”
Fresh off a thrilling five-set victory Friday at UBC, the young Bisons drew first blood with a 25-22 victory in Set 1. Down 2-0 early, the Bisons roared back with four unanswered points to take an early 4-2 lead. Three separate times in the first set, Manitoba completed runs of four consecutive points – The most important stretch came after the mid-way point of the set, when the Bisons turned a 15-14 lead into a 19-14 advantage thanks to a pair of UBC attacking errors and kills by Ella Gray and Eve Catojo. UBC responded with four unanswered points of their own. That run included an ace from Trinity Solecki and a kill from Cara Kovacs. A tandem block from Raya Surinx and Brenna Bedosky cemented the Bisons 25-22 Set 1 win.
UBC’s best set percentage-wise was Set 2. The ‘Birds hit for .325 percent en route to a 25-18 win victory. Trailing 5-3, UBC countered with a 4-0 run that featured two aces from Issy Robertshaw. Cara Kovacs helped UBC’s cause with a kill and an ace on consecutive plays to give UBC an 11-7 lead. Lucy Borowski then chimed in with a pair of aces and a kill to help extend the UBC lead to 15-8. Borowski then evened the match at 1-1 with a kill, clinching a 25-18 victory for the ‘Birds in Set 2.
Doug Reimer‘s club were full marks early in Set 3 as they led 6-1 in the early stages. But the young Bisons remained resilient and clawed their way back with two seprate 5-0 runs. The first turned an 11-7 deficit into a 12-11 lead. With Raya Surinx serving, UBC made two errors. Another 5-0 run from the Bisons gave them an 18-15 lead. Three of those five points for the Bisons were as a result of UBC errors. Ultimately it was a final attacking error from UBC that helped Manitoba earn their final point in a 25-20 third set decision.
A trio of kills early in Set 4 gave Manitoba the early 3-0 lead with Raya Surinx notching two of them. But the veteran UBC Thunderbirds refused to go away quietly. A 4-0 with Issy Robertshaw serving helped force a 7-7 tie. Right back came Manitoba with four straight points – Two from UBC errors and two from kills (Eve Catojo and Raya Surinx). Then with the score knotted at 12, the plucky Bisons went on another 4-0 run. The last big push from the home side came with Jayde Robertsen at serve. Down 18-14, the Birds stormed back to take a 19-18 lead – The go ahead point coming via a kill from Akash Grewal. Ultimately the fourth set would up dead-locked at 22-22 before the Bisons rattled off three unanswered points to clinch the sweep. Fittingly it was a Raya Surinx kill that advanced the Bisons to the semis.
“Ya I mean for a first-year kid, the load she carries and she carries it happily, she just goes about her business you know,” added Bentley when asked about the impact of rookie Raya Surinx, who was all over the stat sheet. “She’s had a fantastic first-year and she’s got a great group that supports her and helps her out and navigate the challenges at this level, they’ve been really good with her and it’s nice to watch.”
The Bisons are now off to the semifinals for a #6 vs. #1 clash with the Trinity Western Spartans next weekend in Langley. The ‘Birds though are also far from finished. On March 16-19, they’ll take to the court again as one of the eight competing teams in the 2023 U SPORTS National Women’s Volleyball championships which will be hosted at UBC.
“The thing that we do have is very good depth and we’re going to have to find ways to compete hard with this fresh in mind as a motivation,” added Reimer on what the internal focus will be for the team with three-weeks of practice time ahead of hosting the 2023 U SPORTS women’s volleyball championships. “Obviously it’s tougher doing that but you know we have a big group and we have a chance to get healthy and be ready to go. If you want to win a championship, we’re just fortunate that we’re hosting and you have to seize that fact, we’re extremely lucky to be in the position that we’re in.”