‘It doesn’t matter what we did last year:’ After a nationals appearance last season, women’s volleyball back for more in 2023-24

It’s the middle of November during the 2022-23 Bisons women’s volleyball season, and as always, veteran setter Katreena Bentley is locked in, positioned on the court as Manitoba’s quarterback. 
 
She’s a constant. An “every dayer” as her dad and head coach Ken would say. She never makes excuses for anything, and Friday the 18th is no different.

Except for one thing.
 
From Katreena’s right knee all the way up to her groin is athletic tape. She’s clearly not at 100 percent, but she’s still out there with her teammates, giving it her all. Not only that, but she continues to sacrifice her body, diving left, right, centre and sometimes over the scorers table to keep a rally going. 

It’s that defensive intensity that helps to define the team’s roster. It’s what helped them make an impressive push towards the top of the conference rankings – a nonstop desire for more, never making excuses for anything. 
 
Each member of the team held themselves accountable in practice, and on game days, and their workmanlike attitude led to incredible results.
 
The Herd upset eventual national champion UBC in the first round in their gym in the first round of last year’s playoffs, eventually securing the No. 6 seed at nationals (hosted by UBC) after a five-set marathon win over Winnipeg in the CanWest bronze medal game. 
 
Countless points were won on long rallies on enemy court. Libero Julia Arnold set a new conference five-set playoff high for digs in a match with 35, breaking a nine-year record, while Bentley, still battling, recorded three key sprawling digs that eventually led to Manitoba points. 
 
Overall, the Bisons had 110 digs as a team, and on the season, six different players had at least 100 on the year. No matter who was on the court, the squad was willing to do the hard work, offering up one of the grittiest and most versatile rosters in the nation. 
 
 “We knew there were going to be long rallies where we had to dig in. Everyone had to be ready all the time, and it wasn’t going to be pretty, which it was not,” said Bentley at the time. 
 
“We somehow hung in there.”
 
The win brought Manitoba back to the big dance for the first time since 2014, and they were not intimidated. 
 
Battling back from one set down in the quarterfinals, the Herd knocked off No.3 ranked Mount Royal 3-2, a team they’d lost to just a few weeks prior in the conference semis. 
 
On the game-winning point, Bentley dished a brilliant back set to leading attacker and national Rookie of the Year Raya Surinx, who blasted home her team-leading 21^st kill of the match from the right side.
 
Immediately after, Bentley stomped her right foot down adamantly on UBC’s court, a fitting move given what she’d been through. Embracing her teammates, Bentley and the Herd soaked it all in, appreciative of what they’d overcome as a group to make it to that point.
 
“That’s what Bisons volleyball is,” recalls Arnold, one of the nation’s best liberos, with 532 total digs last year. 
 
“When everyone is willing to put themselves on the line, then you know that you’re in a really good place. That defensive intensity is really what will set us apart in the end. I think that’s what got us to nationals last year.”
 
Last season, the Herd played the role of underdog, thrilling the province of Manitoba and their fans as they made a run to a top four result in the nation. 
 
This year, there will be no surprises. 
 
The Bisons’ roster is completely intact, minus one player. Every starter returns, including Arnold, Bentley, Surinx (417 kills, 44 aces, both led the team) right side Ella Gray 176 kills, 141 digs), left side Andi Almonte (105 kills, 140 digs), as well as middles Brenna Bedosky and Eve Catojo (157 combined blocks). 
 
On top of that, captain Light Uchechukwu (158 kills, 108 digs) can play anywhere she’s asked at any time, while libero Emma Benson stepped up at nationals with multiple set-saving digs. 
 
Former team MVP Simone Crevier is also back from injury, solidifying a middle spot that is absolutely loaded. 
 
And that’s not to mention the rest of the roster, or the six impact recruits that were added, including veteran setter Elia Falcone, a transfer from the SAIT Trojans in Alberta who’s had a great pre-season. 
 
Despite all this, Arnold, Bentley and company are not giving into the hype, or what happened last year. It’s business as usual for a team that went 13-2 at home a year ago. 
 
“Obviously there’s a lot of pressure on us coming off of last year, and we just got ranked number two in Canada West. We’re really trying not to look at that going forward, because we’re really trying to establish a good culture and good tenacity all over,” Arnold says. 
 
“It doesn’t matter what we did last year. We need to re-establish who we are without getting any outsider perspective, and focus on what we need to do.”
 
This year’s identify doesn’t waiver from last year’s in terms of work ethic. In fact, that’s been heightened. 
“We had a really good culture last year, and that has been one of the biggest parts is making sure we have that again this year, because that was a really big part of our success,” adds Arnold.
 
“All of the veterans, all of the leaders have done a really good job of being in the gym, going to practice and showing up every single day. All of our rookies have done a really good job. They’re in the gym, we don’t even really need to talk to them, we see them in there, they do everything.”
 
‘We can see the game a little bit differently now’
The team’s summer was spent training and staying focused. There were a lot of hill repeats, and on the court, they dug the ball relentlessly.
 
“We just had our goal setting meeting yesterday. There were a few words thrown around. Tenacity was one of them, and culture. Those are two big things you need to win. That’s what we’re really working on,” Arnold says. 
 
“This team is a completely different team than what it was last year, even though we didn’t really lose anybody besides Kendra [Andjelic]. It’s a grind, and it’s honestly about learning to deal with the privilege of having that pressure on us now. 
 
Last year we could come in through the back door and surprise teams. Now we have to be okay with being the team that others want to beat, and finding a way to get good at playing under those circumstances.”
 
Gray and Surinx spent their summers embracing the grind away from Manitoba. 
 
They were both selected as part of Team Canada’s NextGen roster, with the former travelling for the U23 Pan Am Cup in Mexico, and the latter going to Mexico and the NORCECA Final 6 in the Dominican Republic. 

“We played against a lot of different styles. I didn’t know how much different it could get. Even when we’re game planning against U SPORTS and CanWest teams, they have different styles of play, but don’t vary as drastically as they did this summer,” explains Surinx. 
 
“It was so fast-paced, so that helped a lot,” Gray adds. 
 
“Of course Raya playing in those super high pressure situations, I don’t want to speak for her, but I’m sure it helps to learn how to handle more of those situations, not that she hasn’t already.”
 
Gray is bang on. Surinx is already comfortable in high-pressure situations, having recorded the match-winning kill against a triple block in the Winnipeg game, along with the match-ender versus MRU at nationals, and eight impressive service aces off of spin serves. 
 
“I wish I could float [serve],” states Surinx humbly and calmly. 
 
“No, I think you can stick with the spinner,” laughs Gray. 
 
“If I could float, I would float,” Surinx rebuts.
 
“Okay, alright,” finishes Gray, knowing full-well (as does everyone else) how difficult it is to master a spin serve, especially Surinx’s. She tosses the ball up so high it nearly hits the ceiling, and still manages to torch the back line time after time. 
 
It’s this selfless attitude that’s helped Surinx become one of the nation’s dominant attackers. She doesn’t buy into the hype, she just does what’s needed for her team, time after time, set after set. 
 
“Obviously I watch Raya and I see her play, and I’m like okay, how do you do this? In the summer she helped me with my arm swing and following through,” Gray says. “I feel like now I can ask her for lots of help in anything. She’s happy to help me.”
 
For as much as Gray lifts up Surinx, and her other teammates, she’s also become a premier player in U SPORTS. She played on the right side for the first time last year, which was “a big learning curve.” Now, she feels more at home, especially after repping the maple leaf alongside Surinx. 
 
“Coming back this year, I had a better foundation to start off with. I feel like that helps a lot, hitting it line and everything. That was really hard for me to do last year. We can see the game a little bit differently now.”
 
Surinx and company understand that despite the hype, they need to hold each other accountable. One game at a time will continue to be the focus, climbing the mountain, with the goal of reaching the summit in March.
 
“It’s one thing to come to practice and to get it done. It’s another to push yourself and push the people around you to be better, to do the hard thing. That’s a defining factor for our team this year, is to push ourselves past what we thought we could, to get that much better.”
 
Catch Manitoba’s home and season opener tomorrow at 6 pm against Regina. Tickets at GOBISONS.ca.