Wesmen letting Duncalfe eat

Brooke Duncalfe had already shown that she could shoulder the offensive load throughout a Canadian university regular season.

Her next challenge was showing she could still do it when the stakes were raised.

That came Thursday night, and the third-year outside answered the bell, starring in a 20-kill performance while the Winnipeg Wesmen cruised to a 3-0 (25-22, 25-18, 25-20) victory over the Calgary Dinos in Game 1 of the Canada West women’s volleyball best-of-three play-in series at the Duckworth Centre.

Duncalfe’s power was on full display as she took a few chunks out of the ball.

A sign of her growth, she was equally reliable defensively as she led the Wesmen with 14 digs and did not commit a receiving error.

“She’s crazy,” said middle Grace Vallis, who had five kills. “It’s been incredible watching her grow from her first year to now, and I think you also just see her confidence growing as she grows throughout the sport. So it’s just been amazing to watch her grow in confidence, but also the strength of her attack is incredible. And her passing is one of the top on our team, so we really value her as a player and a teammate big time.”

Duncalfe was promoted to the No. 1 option on offence after Selva Planincic graduated following last season, and the Wesmen haven’t been afraid to feed the young attacker.

She led the conference with 777 attacks and made good on the opportunity, logging the fifth-most kills in Canada West (256).

Some of her best play has come down the stretch of the regular season as Duncalfe enjoyed a career-high, 27-kill performance against Manitoba, then encored with 17 and 16 kills in a pair of games against Brandon.

The Sturgeon Heights product has taken the proverbial next step in her career this year and is blossoming into the player the Wesmen believed she could be when they recruited the top-ranked high school player in the province.

“She’s done really well. She’s improved a lot,” said Wesmen head coach Phil Hudson. “She’s increased the number of variations of her attack and stuff that keeps the other team off balance a bit, and she’s seeing the block really well this year. It takes a while for the kids to be able to view the block and know what to do and stuff. And so she’s really done that, a really good job. And she’s hitting the ball from the back court very well right now. Just adds to our offence. When we’re out of system, and she can hit a good ball from the back row, it makes a big difference.”

Duncalfe doesn’t like the spotlight much. She’d rather share it with her teammates.

That was the case again as she quickly deflected comments about her performance in her first playoff match as the go-to weapon and spun it into crediting her team for a solid effort.

The team-first mindset is also understandable, given the winding path the Wesmen have taken to get here. The program began the campaign with losses in eight of its first 10 matches, but went 6-4 down the stretch to secure a play-in berth.

“As a team, it was hard at the start, because we lost some players, but we’ve got it together better. And for me, I feel like there’s more opportunity,” said Duncalfe.

The Wesmen also got contributions from Megan Kendziora, who supplied 10 kills, and Ella Werbiski, who registered seven. Naomi Unger teed up the host’s attackers with 39 assists. Sophia Hansen led the Dinos with 14 kills, while Ashley Ditchfield and Leni Blanke chipped in with eight and seven, respectively.

“We had input from every player on the team, and I thought overall we served quite well. They’re such a big team, and they run such a fast offence that if you let them stay in system, it’s hard to defend one-on-one against their attackers,” said Hudson. “That was a good team win overall, for sure.”

The Wesmen aim to sweep Calgary in the play-in for the second straight year in Game 2 on Friday, back at the Duckworth Centre (6 p.m.).

Game 3, if necessary, will go Saturday at 4 p.m.

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