City bragging rights belong to Bisons

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This article was published 30/01/2015 (3906 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FOR the 13th time the crosstown bragging rights will go to the Manitoba Bisons, after big court wins cemented their grip on this year’s Duckworth Challenge.

In front of a rambunctious crowd at Investors Group Athletic Centre, the Bisons men’s and women’s volleyball teams beat their University of Winnipeg Wesmen counterparts on Thursday night. Those wins clinched the Bisons’ claim on the 24th annual multi-sport series, which pits the arch-rivals against each other in five different events. The Bisons women’s soccer side had already beaten the Wesmen 2-0 in September.

What really got the crowd going was how the Manitobans clinched it, on the back of a men’s game which needed a thrilling five-set showdown to be decided.

The Bisons took the first two sets handily, each by a score of 25-16; but they stumbled in the third, dropping that one 21-25 to a resurgent Wesmen attack. Where the Winnipeg squad hit just .087 in the first set, and minus numbers in an error-filled second, they blew up the scoreboard to a .464 attack rate in the third.

That set the stage for a wild fourth-set battle, in which the Wesmen survived three rounds of the Bisons serving at match point, before retaking the lead and taking the set 28-26 on a Bisons’ attacking error. In the fifth the Bisons ground to an 11-8 lead, but the Wesmen tied it up again; the Bisons finally sealed the set 15-13 when right side Devren Dear slammed the match-winning kill.

“It shows a lot of heart that we have, because we’ve been in that situation before, and it’s gone the opposite way,” Dear said. “Our hard work does pay off.”

Dear finished with a match-high 25 kills, just one ahead of Wesmen standout Tom Douglas-Powell. The third-year Bison also brought up 10 digs.

There was a little chunk of history on the line, sure, and a flush of civic pride too. But the Duckworth Challenge tilts, remember, count like any other Canada West match — and with the Bison women clinging to a conference playoff spot, and the men’s teams neck-and-neck, the two points were the greatest prize.

“Getting the conference win, this is huge for us going into playoffs,” Bisons left side Rachel Cockrell said. “This is a game we need to win.”

The Manitoba women opened the night by dispatching their rivals in just three rapid-fire sets, winning on scores of 25-15, 25-28 and 25-22. They overpowered the Wesmen in the first set, and stayed poised through Wesmen pushes in the second and late in third.

Cockrell finished the match with a match-high 19 kills — over double what any other player put up — and for the third time and final in her career, the graduating player was named the Bisons’ Duckworth Challenge MVP. “In our little pre-game talk, we said we need to play with emotion, not on emotion,” Cockrell said. “We played with emotion, and intensity, but not fluctuating in the game.”

There will be a rematch on Saturday, that one in the Wesmen’s house, and Bentley will look to see his team finish strong to stay in a playoff spot. “I think we’ve come a long way from the start of the season, and I’m really proud of where we are,” Bentley said. “We’re playing really nice and steady and consistent volleyball now, and I thought today was a really good example of that.”

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca