WINNIPEG – Coming off a weekend which the University of Manitoba men's volleyball team split a pair of games against the second place UBC Thunderbirds, the Bisons were back on the court Friday night for a matchup against their provincial rival, the Brandon University Bobcats.
Labelled as the underdogs coming into the game with a conference record of 1-5, Brandon completed the straight-set sweep of Manitoba 25-17, 25-23, 25-21 on the court inside Investors Group Athletic Center.
"Today was a result of the whole week," said Bisons head coach Lupo Ludwig. "We didn't have one practice with the full team this week due to injuries. Tomorrow we will need to take a few more risks in attack and less when we do our setting. Brandon played well today but we didn't do a lot of what we wanted blocking wise. The way we blocked today allowed them to get more and more confident in their attack."
Fourth-year
Ben Carleton led the Bisons with 14 kills on 34 attempts for a hitting percentage of .265 in the loss. Third-year
Matthew Campbell and second-year
Eric Ogaranko each chipped in five kills for Manitoba while first-year Sammy Ludwig got the start at setter and registered 22 assists.
Led by 2022 Canada West Rookie of the Year Philipp Lauter who posted five kills with a hitting percentage of .556 in the first, the visiting Bobcats took the opening set in convincing fashion 25-17. Manitoba's Carleton led the attack for Manitoba, registering 13 total attempts in the first.
The second set proved to be much closer as the two sides battled to an early 8-8 draw. Manitoba followed up by going on a 10-6 run to pull ahead as they tried to level the match at one set apiece. The hosts kept their lead until Brandon pulled even at 21-21 after a Carleton attempt clipped the net and went out of bounds. The Bisons found themselves downs 24-22 before a huge kill from Carleton narrowed the gap but one point later the visitors secured the set, 25-23.
To begin the third and for a second-straight set, the Bobcats and Bisons fought to an early 8-8 tie. Following a similar script to the second, it was the Bobcats this time who put together a 10-6 run taking an 18-14 lead. Later on with the Bisons down 23-18, Jordan Heppner served up an ace as the home side was desperate for a comeback. Carleton followed up the ace with his twelfth kill of the game to cut the lead down further. However a few points later with the match on the line for Brandon, a Manitoba block ended up out of bounds securing the win for the Bobcats, 25-21.
"We are one of the best blocking teams in Canada West and we only had one block today so that says a lot," added Ludwig. "Tomorrow we will need to be more aggressive and see what is happening on the other side."
Both teams will be back at Investors Group Athletic Centre tomorrow at 6:45 p.m. for the final game of the weekend.
