SATURDAY

#4 UBC 3 #8 Saskatchewan 0

Huskies-Thunderbirds Stats

by Wilson Wong, UBC Sports Information

VANCOUVER - The #4 UBC Thunderbirds rebounded with a straight sets victory (25-23, 25-21, 25-14) over the #8 Saskatchewan Huskies to earn a weekend split and a home-court advantage in the quarter-finals.

With the loss, Saskatchewan falls to 10-10 and sees its six-game winning streak come to an end. UBC improves to 14-6 in conference play.

Alex Russell had a team-high 13 kills for UBC while teammates Chris Howe and Ben Chow each tallied 12 kills, with Chow contributing seven in the second set alone.

Paul Thomson led the Huskies with 14 kills, with Jordan Nowakowski and Braden McLean contributing eight and seven, respectively.
 
Next weekend, the Thunderbirds will travel to Edmonton to take on the Alberta Golden Bears while the Huskies will host the Mount Royal Cougars.

GoThunderbirds.ca

#1 Trinity Western 3 #9 Brandon 2

Spartans-Bobcats Stats

by Natalie Majcher, BU Bobcats Sports Information
 
BRANDON, MB – After upsetting the #1 Trinity Western Spartans Friday, the #9 Brandon Bobcats came within two points of a weekend sweep, losing Saturday night 3-2 (18-25, 25-19, 25-21, 19-25, 15-13).
 
Sebastien Steigmeier led the ‘Cats with a match-high 25 kills, 15 digs, two blocks, and a service ace.
 
Sam Tuivai added 17 kills, 11 digs, two blocks, and a service ace, while Dan Boutwell had a 12 kills on just 14 attempts, playing in his final home match as a Bobcat.
 
Ryan Sclater led the Spartans with 16 kills, six digs, and three blocks.  Brad Kufske notched 13 kills, five digs, three blocks, and two service aces.
 
The win improves the Spartans record to 18-2, while the Bobcats fall to 9-11.
 
The Bobcats will travel to Calgary to play the Dinos on February 7 to close out the regular season, while Trinity will host the Winnipeg Wesmen on the same night. 

GoBobcats.ca

Mount Royal 3 #3 Alberta 2

Golden Bears-Cougars Stats

by Justin McCaffrey, MRU Sports Information

CALGARY – The Mount Royal Cougars avenged Friday's loss to the #3 Alberta Golden Bears, winning 3-2 (18-25, 25-22, 16-25, 25-23, 15-12).

Colton de Man led all scorers with 22 points on the night. Kevin Proudfoot had 20.5 for the Golden Bears.

Mount Royal stays alive and moves to a record of 9-11 with the win. The Golden Bears drop to 14-6 with the loss.

Alberta will head home to host UBC next weekend in a battle for playoff positioning at the top of the conference. The Cougars will head to Saskatoon next weekend for two games with the Huskies that will ultimately decide their playoff fate.

mrucougars.com

Manitoba 3 UBC Okanagan 1

Heat-Bisons Stats

by Reynold Beniza, Bisons Sports Information
 
WINNIPEG - The Manitoba Bisons defeated the UBC Okanagan Heat by a score of 3-1 (25-13, 23-25, 26-24, 25-19) to complete the weekend sweep on Saturday at Investors Group Athletic Centre (U of Manitoba campus) to keep their playoff hopes alive.
 
UBC Okanagan put up a stronger fight against Manitoba than on Friday but were still bested in four sets. The Bisons were led by Adam DeJonckheere, who had 19 kills and three service aces, followed by Devren Dear with 17 kills. The Heat were led by Jim Bell, who had 11 kills and two service aces, followed by Lars Bornemann with ten kills.
 
After the win, Manitoba improves to 9-11 and in the thick of the race for the last playoff spot while UBC Okanagan dropped to 4-16 in the Canada West regular season standings.
 
The Bisons travel to Kamloops to play Thompson Rivers next week on Friday, February 7. UBC Okanagan returns home to play against visiting Regina next weekend.

GoBisons.ca

Calgary 3 Winnipeg 2

Dinos-Wesmen Stats

by Sheldon Appelle, Wesmen Sports Information

WINNIPEG - The Calgary Dinos picked up a weekend split against the Winnipeg Wesmen following a dramatic 3-2 (25-22, 25-27, 21-25, 25-21, 15-13) victory on Saturday evening at the Dr. David F. Anderson Gymnasium.

Calgary jumps ahead of Winnipeg in the standings with a record of 10-10. Winnipeg with the loss falls back to 9-11.

Greg Mann led the Dinos in kills with 20, while adding 12 defensive digs and four blocks. Sean Tuff finished with 15 kills and Connor Frehlich added 14 kills. Darcee Froese led Calgary in digs with 13.

Winnipeg was led by Casey Schouten's match high 21 kills. He also led the Wesmen with four blocks and two service aces.  Tom Douglas-Powell added 19 kills and Matthew Schriemer finished with 14.

Calgary will be home to Brandon next weekend. Winnipeg will close out the regular season with two big matches in Langley, BC against Trinity Western.

Wesmen Athletics

#5 Thompson Rivers 3 Regina 2

WolfPack-Cougars Stats

Courtesy U of Regina Sports Information

REGINA – The Regina Cougars led 2-1 in the match for the second consecutive night, but #5 Thompson Rivers came back with wins in the fourth and the fifth set to salvage a weekend split with the Cougars.
 
After losing in four sets on Friday, Thompson Rivers came out strong with a 25-13 win in the first set to take an early lead. But the Cougars recovered with a 25-22 win in the second, which led to a third set in which both teams had gaudy hitting numbers. Thompson Rivers hit .464 as a team, but the Cougars were even better with a .519 hitting percentage and took a 25-21 win.
 
But though the first three sets on Saturday went exactly the same way as Friday's, that's where the similarities ended. Thompson Rivers outlasted the Cougars for a 29-27 win in the fourth and the WolfPack took a 17-15 victory in a fifth set that featured nine tie scores and five lead changes.
 
The win improves Thompson Rivers' record to 12-8 as the WolfPack remain in strong contention for a home date in the Canada West quarterfinals.
 
Casey Knight led Thompson Rivers with 22 kills, but it was Daniel Eikeland Rod that had the most impressive numbers of the game. Eikeland Rod had 15 kills and no errors on just 18 attacks, ending up hitting .833 for the match – the highest percentage of a Canada West player in a single match since October of 2011.
 
Andrew Nelson led the Cougars (2-18) with 23 kills and hit .360, while Caleb Eschbach piled up 46 assists and tied Richey with 14 digs. Joel Legasse equalled his career high with 12 kills for the second consecutive match.
 
Thompson Rivers will host Manitoba next weekend to close out the conference schedule, while the Cougars will head to Kelowna, B.C. to finish off their 2013-14 season at UBC Okanagan.

reginacougars.com

FRIDAY

#9 Brandon 3 #1 Trinity Western 0

Spartans-Bobcats Stats

by Natalie Majcher, Bobcats Sports Information
 
BRANDON, MB - The #9 Brandon Bobcats welcomed the #1 team in the country Friday night, needing a win to increase their odds of earning a berth to the Canada West Playoffs, and they did exactly that picking up a straight-sets victory Friday 3-0 (26-24, 25-20, 25-23) over the Trinity Western Spartans.
 
Sebastien Steigmeier led the way for the ‘Cats notching 14 kills, seven digs, and three blocks, while Sam Tuivai added 12 kills, 10 digs, and three blocks.
 
Brad Kufsfke and Nicholas Del Bianco led matching attacks for the Spartans, both notching nine kills, three blocks, and a service ace.
 
The win brings the Bobcats record to 9-10 while the Spartans remain in first place in the conference at 17-2.
 
Both teams face off again on Saturday at 6:45 p.m.

GoBobcats.ca

#3 Alberta 3 Mount Royal 0

Golden Bears-Cougars Stats

by Justin McCaffrey, MRU Sports Information

CALGARY – The Mount Royal Cougars dropped a tough battle to the #3 Alberta Golden Bears 3-0 (25-22, 25-19, 25-17) on Kenyon Court.

Jay Olmstead and Kevin Proudfoot led the Golden Bears with 10.5 points. Colton de Man was the Cougar's highest scorer racking up 10.5 points.

With the loss Mount Royal drops to a record of 8-11. The Golden Bears move to 14-5 with the victory.

The Cougars will have a chance to salvage a split tomorrow evening when they will play Alberta again at 5:00 p.m.

mrucougars.com

Regina 3 #5 Thompson Rivers 1

WolfPack-Cougars Stats

Courtesy U of Regina Sports Information

REGINA – The Regina Cougars dropped the first set on Friday, but came roaring back to win in four sets over the #5 Thompson Rivers WolfPack at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.
 
Thompson Rivers hit .370 in its 25-18 victory in the first set, but that would be the high point of the match for the visitors. The Cougars never trailed in a 25-22 win in the second and took the lead in the match with a 25-17 victory in the third set.
 
Brad Millers had 11 kils, while Matthew Lueck added 16. The Cougars improve to 2-17.
 
With conference kill leader Brad Gunter unavailable due to an injury suffered last weekend, Casey Knight got the bulk of the swings for Thompson Rivers and finished with 20 kills on 41 attacks.
 
The teams will meet again on Saturday night at the CKHS following the conclusion of the women's game.

reginacougars.com

#8 Saskatchewan 3 #4 UBC 0

Huskies-Thunderbirds Stats

by Shannon Pitt, UBC Sports Information Assistant

VANCOUVER - The #4 UBC Thunderbirds saw their four-game winning streak interrupted Friday evening in War Memorial Gymnasium as the #8 Saskatchewan Huskies triumphed in straight sets (25-22, 25-23, 25-17) to extend their own winning streak to six.

With the loss, UBC falls to 13-6 in conference play, while Saskatchewan improves to 10-9.
 
Quentin Schmidt and Ben Chow, who contributed 13 and 10 kills apiece, totalled two-thirds of UBC's overall kills. Milan Nikic contributed 31 assists and two aces for the Thunderbirds.
 
The Huskies were led by Paul Thomson, Bryan Fraser, and Jordan Nowakowski, who had 12, eight and seven kills, respectively; setter Emory Wells tallied a game-high 35 assists.
 
On  Saturday, the same teams will complete the weekend series, with the first serve at 7 p.m. at War Memorial Gymnasium.

GoThunderbirds.ca

Winnipeg 3 Calgary 1

Dinos-Wesmen Stats

by Sheldon Appelle, Wesmen Sports Information

WINNIPEG - The Winnipeg Wesmen defeated the Calgary Dinos 3-1 (25-14, 25-17, 20-25, 25-23) in a pivotal match on Friday.

The Wesmen (9-10) pull even with both the Calgary Dinos and the Brandon Bobcats in a battle for the final playoff spot in the Canada West standings.

Winnipeg was led by the trio of Tom Douglas-Powell, Casey Schouten and Matthew Schriemer. Douglas-Powell had a match high 16 kills followed by Schouten with 14 and Schriemer with 10.

Andrew Visser, Connor Frehlich and Greg Mann each had 11 kills for the Dinos. Jackson Maris had a team high eight defensive digs. Ivan Kartev led the team with four blocks.

Winnipeg and Calgary will close out their weekend series on Saturday in the early match starting at 6:00 p.m. Fifth year Wesmen player Matthew Stubler will play his final regular season home game and will be honoured prior to the match.

Wesmen Athletics

Manitoba 3 UBC Okanagan 0

Heat-Bisons Stats

by Reynold Beniza, Bisons Sports Information

WINNIPEG - The Manitoba Bisons mdefeated the UBC Okanagan Heat by a score of 3-0 (25-19, 25-21, 25-22) in their first game of the weekend on Friday at Investors Group Athletic Centre (U of Manitoba campus) to keep their playoff hopes alive.

The Bisons had to fight hard to maintain their leads down the stretch of every set but came out on top against the Heat in three sets. Manitoba was led by Adam DeJonckheere with 13 kills and three service aces, followed by Devren Dear with 11 kills. UBC Okanagan was led by Alex Swiatlowski with nine kills.

After the win, Manitoba improves to 8-11 and hot on the heels of three other teams for the final playoff spot while UBC Okanagan dropped to 4-15 in the Canada West regular season standings.

The Bisons will take on the Heat in a rematch of Friday's game on Saturday at Investors Group Athletic Centre at 7 p.m.

GoBisons.ca

About Canada West Universities Athletic Association
Canada West is consistently the most decorated of the four conferences in Canadian Interuniversity Sport, winning 100 CIS national titles over the last 10 seasons. Comprised of 17 schools from the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia, Canada West produces numerous major award winners and Academic All-Canadian student-athletes each year, with many going on to athletic success around the globe in pro leagues or events such as the Olympics, Paralympics or Universiade Games. canadawest.org / canadawest.tv / @cwuaa on Twitter

A proud member of Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS).