Bisons seeking upsets at national volleyball tourney

The Manitoba Bisons put in an extra effort, winning a five-set Canada West bronze-medal battle with the Winnipeg Wesmen last week to earn their place at the U Sports women’s volleyball national championship.

Now, the sixth-seeded Bisons have made it their mission to make life as difficult as possible for their Friday quarterfinal foe, the No. 2-seeded Mount Royal (Calgary) Cougars.

“If we can keep the defensive effort and intensity up, it’s definitely going to help us extend rallies… our philosophy is just to be patient in rallies, and the longer that they go, the more likely we are to win them,” said Manitoba setter Katreena Bentley.

The Bisons and Cougars are excessively familiar with each other, having met four times previously in 2022-23 with Mount Royal handing out consecutive regular-season defeats on Dec. 2 and 3 and then again during the Canada West semifinals on March 3 and 4.

Left side Andi Almonte believes there is good reason to like Manitoba’s chances.

The Bisons are young and built for the future — with 12 first- and second-year players on the 16-player roster — but the team matured and improved in the last six months.

“I think that we can handle the pressure very well,” said Almonte. “I mean, we know how they play. We’ve played them a couple times this year so I think that we can really pull it off and if we just work well and work hard together, we can achieve what we want.”

Manitoba also has a grittier side, something that Almonte’s play has shown.

During the December series with Mount Royal, she was diving for an errant ball while middle Eve Catojo was stretching out for the same ball. Catojo landed heavily on Almonte’s left arm, causing it to hyper-extend.

Almonte, a right-handed hitter, has continued to play with her left arm heavily wrapped while maintaining her steady offensive play and making major strides in her defensive game from her rookie season — going from 1.64 to 2.63 digs per set.

Her defence will be put to the test once more against the Cougars, whose attack includes 6-3 national team middle Nyadholi Thokbuom.

“Their middle is something that we really have to pay a lot of attention to, which just makes closing blocks a lot more difficult,” said Katreena Bentley. “That’s obviously a strength for them… our game prep and plan is going to play a huge role because obviously they’re a veteran team, they know exactly what they’re doing.”

Head coach Ken Bentley likes his team’s chances.

“What has happened in our previous matches is irrelevant now,” he said. “The last time we played them, I felt we’ve played tough (and) could’ve won any one of those sets. And so to me, that’s really encouraging. Yeah, they’re a tough out, but you go to nationals and really, every team’s a tough out.”

Lower seeds can make a big splash at nationals. For instance, the Bisons entered the 2001 nationals as the fifth seed and left the tournament with a gold medal.

In its last trip to nationals in 2014, Manitoba was seeded No. 2 and won a championship. Manitoba will host the 2025 nationals but none of the Bisons are planning to wait, preferring to go title hunting immediately.

“I guess the easy way to answer that question is there’s never a perfect team,” said Ken Bentley. “There’s never a perfect time. And if you wait for the perfect team to arrive, you’ll never win a championship. None of our teams have been perfect.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca