Bisons face Thunderbirds for women’s volleyball glory

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This article was published 06/03/2024 (896 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A clash between No. 3-ranked Manitoba and No. 1 UBC for the Canada West women’s volleyball title should be an epic battle in the making.

The truth is both squads have already clinched berths in the U Sports national championship, slated for March 15-17 in Hamilton, Ont., so what is there to play for?

“I feel like you shouldn’t skip over it,” said middle Brenna Bedosky before the Bisons departed for Vancouver and Saturday’s one-game conference final against the Thunderbirds. “Because even though we have gotten our bid to nationals, it still means just as much.

“I want that (conference) banner up on our wall just as much as everybody else and I’m going to play the same way that I would at nationals. It means the same thing. It’s pride and I would be absolutely proud to have that banner on our wall.”

The winner of Saturday’s showdown would also likely be slotted in as the top seed in Hamilton. Even so, the Bisons have a more important matter on their weekend to-do list.

The team’s all-star left side, Raya Surinx, is expected to return to the lineup after missing almost a month with a sprained right ankle. Surinx, who was named the conference’s player of the year Wednesday after leading the country in kills, needs time and reps to regain her form for nationals.

In her absence, Manitoba rolled through the UBC Okanagan (Kelowna) Heat in the quarterfinals and the pesky Fraser Valley Cascades en route to the final. UBC thumped the Thompson Rivers Wolfpack and Alberta Pandas in successive weekends to advance.

“Give Manitoba full credit with how well they have played, especially last weekend against a really good UFV team,” said UBC head coach Doug Reimer from Vancouver. “It shows their depth and it shows what a great all-round team they are.

“It’s kind of the nature of our sport sometimes to look at the player who gets the most kills or hits the ball the hardest, right? But that’s not how you win volleyball matches. The best teams don’t fold when they lose one player.”

The Bisons, with veteran Andi Almonte filling in for Surinx, didn’t appear to skip a beat.

“Without Raya everyone did a really good job of stepping up and filling in spots and making plays that maybe they wouldn’t have had to make before,” said Manitoba’s Katreena Bentley, a Canada West first-team all-star setter.

“So, I think now we have that under our belts, with everyone having played slightly bigger roles for the last month and I think if Raya’s back, we’re all just used to taking up a little bit more space and doing a little bit extra and having more on our plate.”

Winning the conference title is no guarantee of success at nationals. A year ago, UBC lost to Manitoba in the conference quarterfinals but rebounded to beat the Bisons in the national semifinals before edging the Trinity Western Spartans for the Canadian title.

In addition, Manitoba’s last national crown in 2014 came after losing the conference title.

The conference final is a reunion of sorts for three Bisons — Katreena Bentley, Bedosky and libero Julia Arnold — and UBC left side Erika Vermette.

All four were teammates and played a role in one or more of the four provincial AAAA titles won by Collège Jeanne-Sauvé volleyball juggernaut in the previous decade.

Vermette, a Morris product set to graduate this spring from UBC, is expected to concentrate on beach volleyball next season. Last weekend, she led the Thunderbirds with 27 kills in six sets against Alberta.

“She actually had a really tough start (to the season),” said Reimer, in his 26th season as UBC head coach. “She had a concussion and then just as she was coming back she had a calf injury. So, she did not play, with all of that, until January. I would not call it the easiest year for her.

“She’s made the transition from right side to left side but she’s absolutely been key for us down the stretch and last week she had a career weekend.”

Following Saturday’s Manitoba-UBC women’s final, the Winnipeg Wesmen will take on UBC in the Canada West men’s third-place game.

The winner earns the conference’s third berth in the national championship, scheduled for March 14-17 in Kingston, Ont.

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca