Calgary — Tied at ninth place in the CIS national rankings, the University of Manitoba Bisons staked their claim as the better team with a 3-1 (25-23, 25-23, 21-25, 25-14) win over the host Mount Royal University Cougars.

The tenth leading scorer in the country, Devren Dear, provided a lot of offense for the Bisons as he racked up a game-high 21 kills en route to the win.

In the first set, Manitoba was helped out by a good committee of scoring, as Dear, Adam DeJonckheere and Ken Rooney recorded five kills, and Jordan Dragojevic had four. On the Cougars' side, Canada West's leading scorer among rookies, Tyler Schmidt, had four kills. The teams traded leads, but it was Manitoba that finished strong to claim the set 25-23.

Dead-locked at 19-19 in the second set, back-to-back blocks by Sam Brisbane and Josh Kirkham gave MRU as 21-19 lead. However, the Bisons fought back to again win the set by a score of 25-23. Schmidt and Dear continued their strong offense in the second, both recording five kills.

Thanks to the help of their top three scorers, the Cougars were able to prolong the matc with a 25-21 win. Riley Friesen had three kills while both Jordan Parkin and Schmidt had five. Dear added five of his on. Grigor Kartev's big blocks in the middle of the set gave MRU the lead and they didn't look back.

Racing out to a 5-1 lead in the fourth set, Manitoba looked in total control. Even with two early Cougar timeouts, they were not able to get back into things. The lead never got smaller than four, and Manitoba ultimately won 25-14. Schmidt had three kills, as did Dear and DeJonckheere.

Schmidt tied his career-high of 17 kills in the loss, while the Cougar's leading scorer Parkin added 13 kills. Brisbane's 11 digs were a game high.

Mount Royal is now 9-8, while Manitoba moves to 8-7 in a tight playoff race in Canada West. The teams rematch tomorrow night at the conclusion of the women's game.