Box Score The #6 Manitoba Bisons men's volleyball team were defeated by the #2 Trinity Western Spartans by a score of 3-2 (22-25, 25-22, 25-16, 23-25, 15-11) in their second game of the weekend on Saturday, November 30 at Investors Group Athletic Centre (U of Manitoba campus).
In an exciting five set thriller, the Spartans had two players with double digits in kills. Trinity Western's Lucas Van Berkel led the way with 16 kills followed by Nicholas Del Bianco with 12 kills and two service aces. Branden Schmidt chipped in for the Spartans as well with five kills and three service aces. On the Manitoba side, three players finished with double digits in kills. Devren Dear finished with 17 kills followed by Adam DeJonckheere with 16, and Kevin Falconer with 11.
After the win, Trinity Western improves to 11-1 while Manitoba dropped to 5-7 in the Canada West regular season standings.
The Spartans led by six points halfway through the fifth and final set before Manitoba cut their lead in half to make it 13-10. But the Bisons were unable to pull off the upset as the deciding point in the match came off an attack error.
"It was a good response from [the loss] last night," said Bisons Head Coach Cam Johnson.
"It's too bad the reinforcement for the effort and the belief didn't come with the results but it's still something we can carry forward into the break and fire up the machine again after Christmas."
The Bisons were fired up in the first set and got off to a hot start, leading 20-14 before the Spartans caught up to make it only a two-point deficit. But after a Manitoba timeout, the Bisons found their rhythm to take the first set.
In the second set, the Bisons worked to overcome some early miscommunication errors to tie things up at 19. However, the Spartans defense prevailed in the end as they tied up the match at one set each after Kevin Falconer's attack was blocked at the net by the Spartans.
The Spartans found themselves with an early lead at the start of the third set and were up five points before Johnson called timeout. Things only worsened from there as the Spartans doubled their lead and took a commanding ten point lead, eventually winning the third set 25-17.
The Bisons started the fourth set stronger than the third and led by as many as seven before TWU started to mount a comeback. The Spartans were able to slow down the Manitoba attack to cut the Bisons' lead to two points. But fueled by an exciting rally that saw Bisons co-captain Kevin Falconer dive into the scorer's table to save a would-be point for the Spartans, the Bisons took set point after another Kevin Falconer kill.
The Bisons will take their winter break before travelling to Calgary to play the Dinos on January 10, 2014. The Spartans will also take their winter break before hosting Mount Royal on January 10.
