Bisons and Wesmen clash with spot at nationals on the line

The cross-town rivarly will enter another chapter this Friday at 7 pm, as the Manitoba Bisons head to the David F. Anderson Gym for round three against the Winnipeg Wesmen in a bronze medal showdown. The winner of Friday’s game will earn Canada West’s fourth and final spot at nationals in British Columbia next weekend. 

Manitoba, the No. 6 seed, enters play after sweeping UBC on the road in the quarterfinals, where conference Rookie of the Year and All-Star Raya Surinx tallied a career-high 23 kills in game two. They fell to Mount Royal in the semis. The No.4 seeded Wesmen defeated Fraser Valley in the quarters and lost to Trinity Western in the semi-finals. 

Overall, this is the sixth time Manitoba and Winnipeg are facing off. The Bisons won all three pre-season games, and February 4th’s contest on home court, but lost at UW on February 3rd.

In the February 3rd contest, the two teams combined for 125 digs in a defensive clinic. Wesmen libero Taylor Cangemi had a team-high 16 digs, and was particularly steady in a 25-17 fourth set win to secure the victory. Overall, four Wesmen had at least ten digs, while Bisons libero Julia Arnold led all players with 20 digs, and Surinx had 11.

Offensively, the Wesmen were led by conference all-star Emma Parker, who had 16 kills along with 14 digs, while Manitoba hit above .225 in just one set compared to three from Winnipeg. 

The difference in game two was the energy from captain Light Uchechukwu off the bench. Down by four at 19-15 in the second set, Bisons head coach Ken Bentley subbed her in, and she helped to drastically alter the momentum of not only the set, but the rest of the game. 

Uchechukwu, who Bentley has known through the Junior Bisons Volleyball Club for the vast majority of her life, finished the set with two kills and also set up the middle attack with multiple digs from the back row, recording three in total as Manitoba went on to sweep Winnipeg 3-0. 

Uchechukwu is one of six Bisons with over 120 kills on the year (led by Raya Surinx who was seventh in CanWest with 362). Fellow right side Ella Gray was second on the team, with 209, including 12 in the 3-0 win over Winnipeg, and had at least ten kills in both of Manitoba’s semi-final games. 

Service pressure is likely to be a major story for the two teams that are extremely familiar with each other. The rivals combined for 21 in their two tilts at the beginning of February, forcing both sides to be out of system, which resulted in key swings in momentum over the two games. Veteran setters Katreena Bentley (10.11 assists per set) and Portia Switzer (9.57) finished first and third in the conference in assists per set, and are hard to stop in transition.