With a national championship in their home gym on the horizon, Bisons men's volleyball enter conference playoffs with some extra motivation. They won't have to travel far to start their post-season, either.
Manitoba begins first round pool play tonight (Mar. 3) at the Duckworth Centre, hosted by East division champ Winnipeg, as they'll take on the host Wesmen to kick off three matches in three nights.
After Bisons-Wesmen tonight at 6 p.m., the Herd will face the Calgary Dinos on Friday and the UBC Okanagan Heat on Saturday. Each squad in the four-team pool will play each other once, with the top two teams advancing to round two next weekend. There, six teams will be whittled down to the Canada West Final Four.
Heading into the post-season, the Bisons are probably happy that the Brandon Bobcats won't be at the Duckworth Centre. In a regular season where they finished 7-11, the Herd went 1-5 against the Bobcats and 6-6 against the Huskies (3-3) and Wesmen (3-3).
Those struggles against one team belie a roster that's improving at the right time.
Manitoba has strengthened its middle rotation in the second half of the season, as
Brendan Warren (60 blocks, seventh in CW),
Darian Koskie (37 blocks) and
Zach Janzen (30 blocks) have provided options depending on the matchup — and have often played together. The Bisons are second in the conference in total blocks with 162, trailing only their Friday competition — the Calgary Dinos (193).
On the attack, third-year
Ben Carleton has been the steady hand, leading the team with 3.41 kills per set — good for seventh in the conference. Opposite Carleton, first-year
Spencer Grahame has progressed throughout the campaign. He finished the year second on the team with 2.45 kills per set with four matches of at least ten kills since Feb. 11.
All first round matches can be watched on
Canada West TV presented by Co-op. Ticket information can be found
on the Winnipeg Wesmen website.
HOOFPRINTS
- Bisons setter Jack Mandryk has been all-around excellent… fourth in CW in assists (569), fifth in digs (126)… also has 40 blocks and 23 kills
- The Herd have had some marathon matches in 2021-22… the team is third in CW in sets played (68)
Conference Statistics
U SPORTS Top 10
