SUNDAY

#1 Alberta 3 #8 Saskatchewan 0

Golden Bears-Huskies Stats

by Nicole Betker, Huskies Sports Information

SASKATOON - The visiting CIS #1 Alberta Golden Bears completed a sweep to open the season, with a 3-0 (25-18, 25-22, 25-23) win over the #7 Saskatchewan Huskies on Sunday at the PAC.
 
Ryan Nickifor led the Golden Bears in the victory tallying 12 kills and 10 digs for his team. Kevin Proudfoot added another nine. Brandon Yao recorded 11 digs.
 
Jordan Nowakowski led Saskatchewan with 13 kills, while Bryan Fraser and Braden McLean each tallied seven. Fraser also added nine digs in the match.
 
With the sweep, Alberta joins three other Canada West teams to open the season with two wins.
 
The Huskies remain at home to host the Trinity Western Spartans next weekend, while Alberta returns home to host the Brandon Bobcats.

huskies.usask.ca

SATURDAY

Calgary 3 #10t Mount Royal 2

Cougars-Dinos Stats

by Lindsay Franco, U of C Dinos Sports Information

CALGARY – The Calgary Dinos won their first game of the regular season on Saturday when they took down the visiting Mount Royal Cougars 3-2 (25-22, 25-21, 21-25, 18-25, 15-6) in a five-set battle at Jack Simpson Gymnasium.

Calgary now leads the Crowchild Classic series 5-2 over the Mount Royal Cougars.

Connor Frehlich led all players with a game-high 19 kills in the match. Sean Tuff recorded 11 kills of his own and Darcee Froese added 10 kills and a game-high 16 digs in the Dinos win. Setter Jackson Maris recorded a game-high 42 assists.

For the Cougars, Colton deMan had a team-high 15 kills in the match. Tommy Lyon and Trevor Langvand both added 10.5 points more for Mount Royal.

The Dinos head to Kamloops next weekend to take on the Thompson Rivers WolfPack.

GoDinos.com

#5 Brandon 3 Regina 0

Cougars-Bobcats Stats

by Matt Packwood, Bobcats Sports Information

BRANDON, MB - The Bobcats men's volleyball team made quick work of the Regina Cougars Saturday night with a 3-0 (25-23, 25-19, 25-13) win to make it two in a row for Brandon to start the season.
 
Sam Tuivai led the charge for the Bobcats, putting up a match-high 14 kills on 23 swings, good for a .522 hitting percentage. Sebastien Steigmeier had a double-double (10 kills, 11 digs) to go along with four aces. Roy Ching had a match-high 36 assists in his second match as a starter at setter.
 
Andrew Nelson put up nine kills for the Cougars.
 
Both teams will continue the Canada West regular season next weekend. For the Bobcats, it's a weekend road-trip against the Alberta Golden Bears. The Cougars will head back to Manitoba, only further down the Trans-Canada where they will play the Winnipeg Wesmen.

GoBobcats.ca

Thompson Rivers 3 UBC Okanagan 1

Heat-WolfPack Stats

by Larry Read, TRU Sports Information

KAMLOOPS, BC - The Thompson Rivers WolfPack finds itself unbeaten after the opening weekend of as they took both ends of a home and home series with the UBC Okanagan Heat. Saturday at the Tournament Capital Centre, the match was 3-1 in favor of the WolfPack (25-16,27-25,23-25,25-22).

Brad Gunter did have a good night for TRU, with 18 kills in 36 swings, three service aces and 10 digs. Phil Ozari had 15 kills in 24 chances with five digs and four block assists.

UBCO was led by Nate Speijer's 27 kills in 51 chances. Kristof Schlagintweit had 51 assists.

The Heat will meet up with Mount Royal next weekend while the WolfPack will entertain the Calgary Dinos on Friday and Saturday (Nov 1-2).  Game time both days at the Tournament Capital Centre will be 2:45 pm.

TRU WolfPack

#2 Trinity Western 3 #6 UBC 1

Spartans-Thunderbirds Stats

by Shannon Pitt, UBC Sports Information

VANCOUVER - The CIS #3 Trinity Western Spartans men's volleyball team grabbed a 3-1 win over the #5 UBC Thunderbirds for the second night in a row.

Brad Kufske and Nicholas Del Bianco (TWU) and Ben Chow (UBC) all had 13 kills to lead their respective teams.
 
The Thunderbirds (0-2) will play host to theManitoba for a two-game series next weekend beginning Fridy, 8 p.m. at War Memorial Gym. Trinity Western (2-0) will play at Saskatchewan next weekend.

GoThunderbirds.ca

#1 Alberta 3 #8 Saskatchewan 2

Golden Bears-Huskies Stats

by NicoleBetker, Huskies Sports Information

SASKATOON - In a back-and-forth match to open the season, the CIS #1 Alberta Golden Bears staved off a near upset by the #8 Saskatchewan Huskies 3-2 (23-25, 25-18, 14-25, 25-23, 20-18) on Saturday at the PAC.

Jay Olmstead led the Bears in the victory with 15 kills, followed by Kevin Proudfoot with 12 and John Goranson with 10. Proudfoot had 11 digs for his team, while Jarron Mueller recorded three solo blocks.
 
Bryan Fraser led the Huskies with 19 kills, followed by fellow outside hitter Paul Thomson with 17. Jordan Nowakowski and Mclean each tallied 10. Fraser also added a match-high 10 digs and McLean four solo blocks.
 
The teams play again Sunday at 4 p.m. and it can be watched on canadawest.tv.

huskies.usask.ca

FRIDAY

#2 Trinity Western 3 #6 UBC 1

Thunderbirds-Spartans Stats

by Mark Janzen, TWU Sports Information

LANGLEY, BC – The CIS #3 Trinity Western Spartans eeked out a four-set (30-28, 25-20, 22-25, 27-25) win over #5 UBC in its season-opener on Friday at the Langley Events Centre.
 
With the Thunderbirds up 15-7 in the first set, UBC setter Milan Nikic left the game with a leg injury and his absence changed the entire complexion of the match. With Nikic out, the Spartans rallied from down eight points to win the first set and then took the second set in tidy fashion before being forced to fourth set, where they once again edged UBC by just two points.
 
Trinity Western was led by Nick Del Bianco, who had 18 kills, five aces and five blocks. Brad Kufske added 15 kills.
 
The T-Birds were led by Ben Chow, who had 16 kills and three blocks while Alex Russell had 10 kills and four blocks. Perry finished with 29 assists and eight digs.
 
The Spartans and T-Birds will play the second half of their home-and-home series Saturday at UBC at 7 p.m. The game will be streamed live at twu.canadawest.tv.
 
GoSpartans.ca

#10t Mount Royal 3 Calgary 2

Dinos-Cougars Stats

by Justin McCaffrey, Mount Royal Sports Information

CALGARY – The Mount Royal Cougars (0-0) downed the Calgary Dinos (0-0) on Friday by a score of 3-2 (25-23, 23-25, 26-28, 15-12) at their home opener at Kenyon Court.

Colton de Man led all Cougars in scoring with a whopping 25 kills. Connor Frelich was the Dinos top scorer putting home 12 kills.

The cougars now hold a record of 1-0 and the Dinos fall to 0-1.

The teams play again on Saturday, 6:30 p.m. at the Jack Simpson Gymnasium at the University of Calgary.

MRU Cougars

Thompson Rivers 3 UBC Okanagan 0

WolfPack-Heat Stats

by Cary Mellon, UBCO Sports Information

KELOWNA, BC - Eighteen kills by the WolfPack's Brad Gunter played spoiler to the Heat's season-opener, as Thompson Rivers University defeated the Heat in straight sets Friday night in Kelowna, BC, 3-0 (25-23, 25-20, 25-22).
 
All three sets played very closely in the early portions, but the WolfPack were able to take advantage of Heat errors in the latter portions to secure set wins. Colin Carson was extremely effective in distributing the ball from the setter position, collecting 36 assists behind the kills of Gunter, who sharpened his skills this past summer on the junior national team,  and an additional 8 from Philip Ozari.
 
On the UBC Okanagan side, Nate Speijer  led all Heat hitters with 15 kills, while rookie Lars Bornemann, Joshua Harvey and Kyle Pankratz all tallied 5 kills of their own in the season-opening spoiler.
 
With the win, Thompson Rivers begins the season 1-0, while the Heat begin 0-1. Both teams will complete the home-and-home season-opening series at Tournament Capitol Centre on Saturday at 7 p.m.

Heat Athletics

#5 Brandon 3 Regina 1

Cougars-Bobcats Stats

by Matt Packwood, Brandon U. Sports Information

BRANDON, MB - The Brandon Bobcats began their 2013-14 home-opener by raising last season's Canada West championship banner, and concluded the evening by beating the Regina Cougars 3-1 (25-19, 23-25, 25-16, 25-19).
 
Playing in his first regular season match as a Bobcat, Swiss import Sebastien Steigmeier led the charge for Brandon, notching 17 kills and 14 digs. Coming off a successful season last year, Sam Tuivai also recorded a double-double, finishing the contest with 15 kills and 12 digs. Starting his first match at setter after playing almost all of last season at right-side, Roy Ching finished with a match-high 47 assists.
 
The Cougars were led by Andrew Nelson's team-high 17 kills, while Jacques Borgeaud put up 11 digs and Nathan Cherwaty finished with 10 digs.
 
The two teams will meet again Saturday in Brandon for the second-half of the season-opening weekend series.

GoBobcats.ca

Winnipeg 3 Manitoba 2

Wesmen-Bisons Stats

by John Gaudes and Reynold Beniza, U of M Bisons

WINNIPEG  - The Manitoba Bisons found themselves in a prime situation for their home opener on Friday - facing off against their cross-town rival after beating them the night before on their home court.

After two set wins to start, Manitoba looked ready to make it two straight, but the Winnipeg Wesmen came roaring back with a tight third set win, riding out the momentum to win in five sets (22-25, 19-25, 31-29, 25-22, 15-10). With the win, Winnipeg moves to 1-1 while Manitoba falls to the same record.

Winnipeg was led by the outside hitting duo of Casey Schouten and Tom Douglas-Powell, with the former earning 16 kills and the latter earning 18. Douglas-Powell added 12 digs to stuff his stat line.
In a losing effort, Manitoba got a great game from first year hitter Adam DeJonckheere, who led all players with 23 kills on 37 attempts.

The Bisons and Wesmen meet again at the Investors Group Athletic Centre on Saturday, October 26th for the second of their weekend back-to-back. The start time is once again 8:15 p.m.

Bisons Athletics

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 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).