At the end of the 2014-15 Canada West women's volleyball conference regular season, the Manitoba Bisons – the defending CIS WVB champion – finished sixth in the Canada West standings with a 13-11 record and will now travel on the road and play the third place and #2 UBC Okanagan Heat (19-5) in the Canada West Quarter Final best-of-three playoff series on the February 13-15 weekend.
The best-of-three playoff series commences on Friday, February 13 with start time of 8 p.m. CT for game one then on Saturday, February 14, game two is at 7 p.m. CT and, if necessary, game three will be play on Sunday, February 15 at 5 p.m. CT. All playoff contests will be played in Kelowna, BC.
During this season, Manitoba went 0-2 against UBC Okanagan as they were swept on the road (L 3-1 on Oct. 24/14; L 3-0 on Oct. 25/14). Since the beginning of the second half of the 2014-15 season, the Bisons have gone 7-3 and won five of those seven matches on the road.
This is the first time the Bisons and UBC Okanagan have met in a playoff match since the Heat joined Canada West in the 2011-12 season. The Heat have now made the playoff in the last three seasons while the BIsons make the post-season for the ninth consecutive season and the last time they won the conference quarter-final series on the road was in 2011 when they swept at Brandon in two matches.
In Canada West 2014-15 final regular season stats, the Bisons were sixth in hitting percentage at .191 while UBC-0 was fourth (.210); the Herd was eighth in assists at 10.53 per set while UBC-O was sixth (10.92); eighth in conference kills at 11.30 per set for the Bisons and the Heat were fifth (11.76); Manitoba ended up ninth (2.04) while UBC-O was second (2.58) in blocks per set; Manitoba finished fifth in service aces at 1.82 per set and UBC-O was second (1.94) plus the Bisons was third in conference digs at 14.83 and the Heat ended up sixth (13.85).
Individually in Canada West final regular season stats, Bison Rachel Cockrell was first in kills per set (5.06), kills (471), points (535.5) and points per set (5.8). Brittany Habing was sixth in assists per set 8.91. Kalena Schulz was tied for third in conference service aces per set ay 0.44 while Sarah Klassen ended up tied for eight in total blocks per set with 1.09 and Caleigh Dobie was first in conference digs per set at 4.16.
Bison women's volleyball - 2015 Canada West Quarter Final series away schedule
Date Game Time Place
Fri, February 13 Game 1: Manitoba vs. UBC-O 8 p.m. CT Kelowna, BC
Sat, February 14 Game 2: Manitoba vs. UBC-O 7 p.m. CT Kelowna, BC
*Sun, February 15 Game 3: Manitoba vs. UBC-O 5 p.m. CT Kelowna, BC
* if necessary
Bison women's volleyball notes: Last season in winning the 2013-14 CIS women's volleyball championship, Manitoba finished fourth in Canada West standings with a 14-8 record. The Bisons hosted Alberta in conference quarter-final series at home and swept the Pandas in two matches before being silver medal medallist at the Canada West Final Four in Vancouver and then sweeping all three matches (W 3-0 over Ottawa; W 3-0 over Dalhousie; W 3-0 over UBC) at the 2014 CIS WVB championship in Regina.
