David Larkins, Wesmen Athletics
WINNIPEG - On a team saddled with two critical injuries, Adrian Dyck and Daniel Thiessen did all they humanly could to rally their squad to a win.
Dyck had a match-high 21 kills and Thiessen added 20, both season highs for a four-set match this season for the Winnipeg Wesmen volleyball program, but it wasn't enough as the Wesmen dropped a 3-1 (25-17, 27-25, 24-26, 25-21) decision to the Manitoba Bisons Thursday night at Duckworth Centre.
The loss put the Wesmen down two in the annual Duckworth Challenge event between the schools' soccer, volleyball and basketball programs.
Dyck, whose 21 kills is the tops for a Wesmen player this season, also added 12 digs and hit .366 on the match.
Thiessen, whose 20 kills matched David Bommersbach for second-most in a Wesmen match this season, hit .395 for the night. The two outside hitters accounted for 41 of Winnipeg's 59 kills.
"(Head coach) Larry (McKay) told us the beginning of last week that me and Dan we need to do our jobs," Dyck said of the message to the pair after Bommersbach and Taylor Howe went down to injury a week ago Thursday. "Other guys need to do their job as well, but that's our job right there so we need to get that done."
Middle blocker Ethan Duncan was the most efficient U of W player on the night, notching nine kills on 11 swings with zero errors as Winnipeg hit .286 for the match, the team's highest percentage since a Nov. 18 win over Thompson Rivers.
A balanced U of M attack won out eventually. Adam DeJonckheere, the team's leading attacker, was held in check for most of the night but finished with 13 kills. Scott Vercaigne led the Bisons with 16 and middle blocker Dustin Spiring added 10 on 15 swings.
The Bisons were able to swing the match drastically in Set 2 when back-to-back kills from Vercaigne gave them the win and sent the Wesmen into Set 3 needing a big comeback.
"I think just a few of those points we kind of let them go," Dyck said. "We not necessarily held back but we didn't quite put enough into it when we needed to and those were big points that we needed to get."
Winnipeg lost its sixth straight, while Manitoba snapped a three-match losing streak.
The two teams meet again Saturday at U of M.