Bisons host Huskies in chase for division title

The late season dramatics are here for Canada West men’s volleyball. With just two weeks left in the regular season, two games separate all four teams in the conference’s east division.

The prairie-led division — consisting of Manitoba, Brandon, Winnipeg and Saskatchewan — has featured four young teams trading spots in the standings, seemingly after every match.

The eventual division winner will host the first round of the Canada West playoffs from Mar. 4-6.

Right now, the Manitoba Bisons (6-8) and Saskatchewan Huskies (7-7) are in chase position. Winnipeg leads the division at 8-6 and both the Herd and Huskies have their eyes on a sweep if they want to overtake the Wesmen.

These two teams last met at the end of January at IGAC, a weekend that ended in a split for Manitoba (2-3, 3-0). Their improvement from Friday to Saturday was mainly through an emphasis on attacking from the middle and out of the pipe. Fourth-year Zach Janzen was their main weapon in both areas, as he recorded a season-high nine kills in the Saturday win.

After this weekend, the Bisons finish their regular season on Feb. 25-26 in Brandon.

HOOFPRINTS

• Bisons lead CW in stuff blocks (41)… third-year middle Brendan Warren leads the team with 12 (2^nd in CW)
• Ben Carleton leads Manitoba’s outside attack… the Australian native has 3.37 kills per set and 403 total attacks (5^th in CW)
• First-year left side Spencer Grahame is red hot since the holidays… he recorded a season-high 16 kills on Feb. 11 vs. Brandon
• Saskatchewan’s Dylan Mortensen averages 3.93 kills per set (5^th in CW) and has 26 total blocks

Conference Statistics
U SPORTS Top 10