BRANDON – The third-ranked Manitoba Bisons continued to flex their Canada West muscles as they bounced the eighth-ranked Brandon Bobcats in straight sets in men's volleyball action on Saturday, January 28 night. The set scores were 25-21, 25-23 and 25-16.

With the road win, Manitoba has extended their conference win streak to 16 matches and now sit in first place in Canada West standings with a 17-1 record plus clinched a playoff spot. Brandon drops to 11-7 and sixth in standings after the weekend losses.

Adam DeJonckheere had a match-high 12 kills and three digs for the conference-leading Bisons and Devren Dear with 11 kills and five digs.

The top scorer for the Bobcats was James Weir with seven kills, while Elliott Viles chipped in with six kills.

In the opening set, the Herd started strong with an 8-1 run. BU got within striking distance by scoring four straight points to trail 11-8. When the technical timeout rolled around, the Bisons were up 16-11. The U-of-M maintained the momentum to strike first in the match.

The longtime provincial rivals traded punches in the early stages of the second with Manitoba holding a slim 12-11 advantage over Brandon. The Bisons expanded their lead with an 8-3 run to go up 20-14. Brandon collected four consecutive points in the late stages of the second to trim the deficit to 22-21, but that is as close as they would get.

The Bisons got the better of the Bobcats in the third with an 11-2 run that turned an 8-7 lead into a 19-9 stranglehold on the set en route to sweeping the match.

The Bobcats as they travel to Trinity Western to square off against the nations top-ranked team, the Spartans next weekend. Manitoba returns to home this coming weekend as they look to continue their winning ways against the Thompson Rivers WolfPack on Feb. 3-4 weekend.