Women’s volleyball continues dominance
Sweep Dinos in six straight sets
Ajitpaul Mangat, Staff
On a weekend when the University of Manitoba Bisons football team exerted their dominance over the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) football world, the Bisons women’s volleyball team exerted their own dominance over the CIS women’ volleyball world heading into the winter break.
This past weekend’s series with the No. 3-ranked University of Calgary Dinos was supposed to be a hard test for the No. 1-ranked Bisons, as the Dinos were the only undefeated women’s volleyball team remaining in the country. Six straight sets of peerless, masterful volleyball by the Bisons left little doubt about which team is the best in the country.
“I was happy that we met the challenge. I thought we had a good weekend, we were really consistent,” said Bison head coach, Ken Bentley. “Calgary is a very dangerous team, so we know that somewhere down the road we are going to have to play them again.”
The weekend’s opening match (25-17, 25-17, 25-19) was completely dominated by the Bisons, who never trailed by more than two points at any point in the three sets.
The team’s biggest strength this season has been defence, and they employed one aspect, digging, to control the game. Manitoba leads Canada West with 13.71 digs per game, and it showed with the home team saving numerous points largely due to determined persistence to not concede any easy points to the Dinos.
“We work real hard defensively. It is a priority every day in practice. You ultimately have to defend to win regardless of sport,” said coach Bentley. “I was happy with our performance defensively. We played with great intensity.”
Player of the game, the Bisons’ Sabrina Barnes, led all players with eight digs, to go with her 11 kills. The Dinos’ Laura Wilson equalled Barnes’ kill total.
The second game was a closer affair.
The opening two sets unfolded very similarly: starting extremely competitively, with each team holding the lead, and then eventually having the Bisons slowly pull away, as the set progressed. Ultimately, the Bisons won both sets by the same close 25-22 score line.
The third set saw the Dinos take the early lead, going ahead by as much as 11-9. It was a succession of uncharacteristically sloppy play by the Bisons that allowed this, with attack errors by Amy Matthews and Erin Nieuwenburg, and block errors by Sabrina Barnes and Deanna Delisle.
As in the first match it was the Bisons stingy defence, in this case specifically blocking, that led them to victory. Manitoba — third in total blocks per game in the Canada West with 2.70 — amassed 12 blocks compared to the Dinos’ seven. Of particular note was player of the game, the Bisons’ Ashley Voth, who amassed an impressive five blocks late in the set. Samantha Loewen teamed with Voth on two of the blocks. The Bisons would go on to comfortably win the set 25-13, and sweep the match 3-0.
“I don’t think we are complacent. If you get sloppy and you let down mentally then I think any team is vulnerable. We are a pretty skilled team but if we are not adhering to what we want to do then we’ll fall like anyone else. I’m pleased that we’ve had a pretty good attitude with that so far, but it is going to have to get stronger as the second half gets harder,” said coach Bentley.
The Bisons finished the opening half of the CIS season with an impressive 9-1 record. They will next play in the Cay Club International exhibition tournament in Tampa Bay, Florida at the end of December.
Manitoba begins the second half of the season on Jan. 12 and 13, 2008 when they will face the Trinity Western University Spartans (6-2) at the Investors Group Athletic Centre. Both games will begin at 1 p.m..
Calgary (6-2) will next face the University of Alberta Pandas (7-1) on Dec. 1 and 2.
