WVB: Cougars improve to 2-0 in postseason with win over MAN

Box Score
SASKATOON, SASK. — The Mount Royal Cougars women’s volleyball team made quick work of the Manitoba Bisons with a 3-0 straight-set win (25-15, 25-14, 25-17) at the Physical Activity Complex.

After a marathon five-set win on Thursday night in Saskatoon to open their postseason, the Cougars improved their playoff record to 2-0.

“Last night was such a gruelling match against UBCO, so I was just really hoping we’d respond with a great effort today and we certainly were fatigued today, but I think they did exactly the job we wanted to do. We played the way we wanted to and had a good match,” said Cougars head coach Shane Smith.

“We always talk the score will take care of ourselves if we do that and I think that happened for us today.”

Madison Marshall led the way with 14 kills and two service aces for the Cougars, while Quinn Pelland had a game-high 33 assists. Nyadholi Thokbuom tacked on nine kills to go along with two service aces.

Meanwhile with the loss, Manitoba falls to 0-2 this postseason, which eliminates them from moving on to the next round of the playoffs.

“Mount Royal is a good team. That made it tough to play and they were in system a lot more than we were, so that made it way harder for us,” said Bisons head coach Ken Bentley. “Without making excuses, Mount Royal just flat out beat us tonight and they’re a really good team. Their record is there for a reason.”

“We weren’t very firm when we started and played a little apologetically. I thought we got better and I thought we tried to find a way to get back in the match, but they just really didn’t give us many chances to do it,” said Bentley.

“I have zero complaints, even though they got beat up pretty good today, they kept giving ‘er and trying hard. As long as they don’t compromise that, I’m going to be happy”

Light Ucheckukwu led the Bisons with 13 kills, while Katreena Bentley had 18 assists in the losing effort.

Mount Royal hopped out to an early lead in the first set, but after Manitoba was able to trim the deficit down to three at 10-7, the Cougars rallied off seven consecutive points with Marshall on serve — en route to a decisive first set win. It was more of the same in the second, as Mount Royal closed the set on an 11-5 run. The Cougars took care of business in the third, as Marshall tacked on five of her 15 kills in the frame, helping MRU end the match in three.

A battle between the number-four and number-six ranked teams in the nation is on deck, as Mount Royal closes out Round 1 of the postseason tomorrow night against Saskatchewan.

“It’s always hard to win in Canada West. We just got to come out and play hard and expect everything and give our best effort,” said Smith.

“They’re a great team. They had a great crowd out tonight —  it was awesome. We’ll expect the same tomorrow and that’ll bring a different energy. They’re a really good team and we’ll need to perform tomorrow as well.” 

Meanwhile, Manitoba will finish off their season in a matchup with UBCO — who bounced back after a Thursday night defeat to Mount Royal with a 3-1 win over Saskatchewan this evening. And while the Bisons are out of contention to move on to Round 2, there is still much to play for Bentley.

“We’ve got to battle a good UBCO team and try to come back with as much force as we can and see if we can pull out a win — that’s the objective. We’ll give it a go and see what happens,” said Bentley.

All the action can be seen on CanadaWest.TV presented by Co-op.