WINNIPEG – On a day where Manitoba honoured their five graduating seniors, all five started and played an important role, as the No. 3 nationally ranked Bisons held off a gritty MacEwan squad 3-1.
 
The win was the 14th straight for the 16-4 Herd, who concluded the regular season having not lost a game since November 2^nd. They are in second place in Canada West as of this writing. MacEwan fell to 2-16.
 
Rally scoring era career leaders Katreena Bentley and Julia Arnold combined for 30 digs, while Bentley had 46 assists. Fellow seniors Light Uchechukwu, Chloe Ellerbrock and Julia Horne combined for 12 kills, two solo blocks, an assisted block and 21 digs.
 
"They're all really good players. It was nice to get them out there and to play them and compete," Bisons head coach Ken Bentley said of the team's seniors, who played in their final regular season home game.
 
"It was important for the team, and the love they felt. The chance they got to go out and play, you couldn't have asked for a better night. I was so thrilled for them."
 
The Griffins got a career high 17 kills from Alyshia Bryks in the loss.
 
Set one was another defensive slugfest. The two sides combined for 33 digs and ten assisted blocks.
 
The Griffins kept pace throughout, led by an assisted block and 12 assists from setter Payton Shimoda, who broke the school record for career Canada West assists yesterday.
 
An Arden Butler kill, her fourth of the game, made it 20-19 Manitoba, but the Herd pushed back and closed things out with their depth.
 
Horne had a kill and four digs in the set, while Ellerbrock posted a solo block that helped Manitoba surge ahead 24-20. An error eventually gave the hosts the set by five.
 
It was a setters showcase in set two, as Bentley and Shimoda went pass for pass, distributing the ball brilliantly in a slugfest.
 
The Griffins had set point at 24-23 following a Kara Frith cross-court kill, while five different GMU players had at least five kills entering the third.
 
But Bentley – the only player in Canada West history to lead the conference in assists per set every year she's played – had the answer, dishing out 24 assists through two.
 
She found Andi Almonte, who went hard off hands to tie the game at 24, and the dished a perfect back set to Raya Surinx – the match leaderwith 20 kills – who pained the back line.
 
Then, with the score tied at 25, Bentley went to Uchechukwu, who put down a cross-court kill from the left for a 26-25 Bisons lead.
 
Bentley's best friend and step-sister Arnold was instrumental in the closing point.
 
The senior libero, the school's rally-scoring era leader in regular season and career digs, stayed firm in the back, keeping an aggressive pipe attack from hitting the floor. The Griffins later recorded an error to end the set. Through two, Arnold had 12 digs to lead all players.
 
The Griffins surged ahead to a four-point lead in set three, at 11-7 and didn't trail the rest of the way in a 25-22 win. Bryks was instrumental, with six kills in the set, including the winner off of hands from the left.
 
Manitoba tied the game at 16 following a Surinx kill from the right, while middle Brenna Bedosky had five kills and a perfect hitting percentage entering the fourth, but a combined 43 digs helped the Griffins keep multiple rallies alive, led by 13 each from Arden Butler and Kara Frith.
 
The fourth set was tight for vast portions, but the hosts eventually pulled away. A one-handed dig from Arnold led to a Surinx roll shot for a kill and a 13-12 lead, and from there Manitoba out-scored GMU 12-2.
 
Bedosky put down her eighth kill late, and finished one attack shy of entering the Canada West record books for hitting percentage. She ended the match with a .889 hitting percentage on nine attacks, one shy of the minimum needed.
 
The Bisons now await the results of the final week of the regular season to see who they host in the quarterfinals at the end of the month.