Wesmen Athletics
Women's Volleyball Off To Final Four
The Women's Volleyball Team Is Off To The Canada West Final Four Next Weekend At UBC. Winnipeg Beat Manitoba 3-0 Friday Night To Win The Series In Two Straight..
Game Two - Friday, February 17
WESMEN def Manitoba 3-0 (25-18, 25-17, 25-22) Boxscore
Wesmen Win Series, Off To Final Four
The Winnipeg Wesmen are off to the Canada West Final Four. Winnipeg defeated the Manitoba Bisons 3-0 (25-18, 25-17, 25-22) in game two of their quarter final series Friday evening in front of a boisterous crowd at the Duckworth Centre. Winnipeg won the opening match in five sets Thursday night and will head to next weekend's Canada West Women's Volleyball Final Four in Vancouver.
Lauren Sears once again led the attack for Winnipeg, finishing with 14 kills in 24 attempts (.542 hitting percentage). Sears also had three blocks and two service aces. Carleen Kruschel had nine kills, three service aces and two blocks. Erika Buchanan finished with seven. Setter Brittany Habing had 37 assists and libero Tesca Andrew-Wasylik had a match high 17 digs.
Kristi Hunter led Manitoba with 11 kills followed by Tricia Mayba with eight. Libero Nicole Hall led the team with 11 defensive digs. Hunter and Miranda Schmidt each had two blocks. Setter Christina Souza had 23 assists.
Winnipeg had control in the early stages of the opening set racing out to a 12-4 lead. Manitoba rallied and scored five straight points to close the deficit to 12-9. Manitoba closed the gap even further at 14-13 but that was as close as they would come with Winnipeg fighting off the challenge to win the opening set 25-18.In the second set Manitoba led 6-3 early on but Carleen Kruschel made a statement soon after. Kruschel came thru with a kill followed by back-to-back service aces to pull the score even at 6-6. After Manitoba gained an 8-6 advantage the tide of the set turned quickly in Winnipeg's favor. The Wesmen went on a 9-1 run to take a 15-9 lead. Sears had four kills during the run. Winnipeg went on to win the second set 25-17.
Manitoba needing to win the third set to extend their season led 16-14 at the technical timeout but a pumped up Wesmen squad looked hungry and eager to finish the match. Key kills combined with several attacking errors by Manitoba led the way for the Wesmen to come back and win the third set 25-22.
Game One - Thursday, February 16
WESMEN def Manitoba 3-2 (24-26,25-23,19-25,29-27,15-9) Boxscore
Wesmen Win Five Set Thriller
The Winnipeg Wesmen won the opening match of the best of three Canada West quarter finals with a dramatic 3-2 (24-26, 25-23, 19-25, 29-27, 15-9) victory over the Manitoba Bisons Thursday evening at the Duckworth Centre.Winnipeg fell behind in sets 2-1, but came back to win the fourth and the deciding fifth set.
Fifth year middle Lauren Sears led Winnipeg with 19 kills and eight blocks. First year left side Ozana Nikolic had 13 kills and 20 defensive digs. Erika Buchanan finished with 11 kills and six blocks and Carleen Kruschel added 10 kills. Setter Brittany Habing finished the match with 56 assists. Libero Tesca Andrew-Wasylik had a match high 29 digs.
Manitoba was led by first year left side Danika Picklyk's 21 kills. Crystal Mulder added 11 kills and three blocks. Fifth year middle Tricia Mayba finished with 10 kills, four blocks and two service aces. Setter Christine Souza had 50 assists to go along with four blocks.
Manitoba gained the upper hand in the opening set leading 15-10 just prior to the technical break. Winnipeg mounted a come back with Ozana Nikolic at the service line, the Wesmen scored four straight points to cut the Bison lead to 15-14. Manitoba continued to lead late in the set at 20-19, when back to back service aces by Alicia Perry gave Winnipeg the lead at 21-20. The teams continued to battle point for point until the Bisons eventually won the opening set 26-24.
In the second set Manitoba scored three quick points only to see Winnipeg go on a 5-0 run to lead 5-3. The teams continued to exchange points to the technical timeout with Manitoba leading 16-15. Once again the score was tied at 20-20 late in the set but this time Winnipeg came out on top winning the second set 25-23.
The momentum in set number three belonged to the Wesmen early on. After Manitoba jumped out to a 5-2 lead, Winnipeg went on a 9-1 run, led by Erika Buchanan's two kills and a big block on Tricia Mayba to take a 11-6 lead. The Bisons did not roll over and reeled off five points of their own to take a 13-12 lead. The Bisons used the late momentum to win the third set 25-19.The Winnipeg come back came in the fourth set with the teams squared at 9-9. Winnipeg went on a 7-2 run to lead 16-11 at the technical timeout. Winnipeg held the lead late in the set at 23-18 only to see Manitoba score three points to trail 23-21. Manitoba staved off two set points, thanks to kills by Mayba to tie the score at 26-26. After a Winnipeg service error made the score 27-27, a kill by Kruschel followed by a block by Buchanan gave Winnipeg the fourth set at 29-27.
In the fifth set Winnipeg jumped out to an 8-3 lead and never looked back closing the match with a pair of kills by Lauren Sears to close out the fifth set 15-9.
The two teams will meet Friday night in game two of the best of three series. Match time is 7:00 p.m. at the Duckworth Centre.
