Bisons set to host nationals

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This article was published 24/03/2022 (1458 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The national university men’s volleyball championship was spiked two years ago, a clear sign the COVID-19 pandemic had reached Winnipeg.

It was the morning of March 12 and eight of the finest squads from coast to coast were in town for the 2020 U Sports championship at the University of Manitoba.

At the time, there was no reason to doubt the three-day event would go as planned.

But as each minute passed, more was being learned about the virus and how fast it was spreading. By the afternoon, the U of M and the national governing body made the tough decision to bar spectators from the tournament as a precaution.

A few hours later, they pulled the plug on the event entirely and sent the athletes and their contingents home.

Nearly 750 days later, eight of Canada’s premier programs are in Winnipeg and this time, they’ll play. The U of M has another shot — and rightfully so — to host the championship, served up Friday to Sunday at Investors Group Athletic Centre.

“The moment the tournament got cancelled in 2020, I was on the phone saying, ‘We want to do this again and you need to allow us to do this again,’” Gene Muller, U of M’s director of athletics and recreation, told the Free Press.

“There was no hesitation around taking it on again… the No.1 driver was making sure our student athletes would get to play in a national championship at home.”

But the Bisons, who earned an automatic berth as hosts, might not stay for long. The Herd is the No. 8-seed and will play the Trinity Western Spartans — the most dominant team in the nation — in the quarterfinals, Friday at 6 p.m.

Trinity Western is fresh off another Canada West championship and have won three of the last four national titles. The Bisons will need a heroic performance from, well, essentially every single person on the court to have a chance at taking down the Spartans.

The Bisons have a young roster, but graduating libero Kyle Martens and the leadership group have tried to remind the team anything can happen in volleyball.

“One of the things that Kyle was saying is that Trinity has a pretty strong social media presence and what you see are the highlights,” said fourth-year left side Owen Schwartz.

“You don’t go on Instagram and Twitter and see them lose a point. So, he was really encouraging us and challenging us to watch a full game and that way you could see they are as human as any other team… But when you have this presence on social media like they do, it’s really easy to get caught up in, ‘Oh, we don’t have a shot.’”

The Spartans only lost three sets in seven Canada West postseason games and beat NCAA powerhouses UCLA and Long Beach State at a tournament back in November.

As for the Bisons, it’s been a transition year as they were getting used to a new leader on the sideline for the first time in almost 40 years as Arnd (Lupo) Ludwig took over for the legendary Garth Pischke after the 2020 campaign. It’s been an adjustment for the former Canadian national women’s team coach and the players, but Ludwig liked what he saw from his group in the first round of playoffs at the University of Winnipeg earlier this month even though a 1-2 pool record wasn’t enough to move on.

“I didn’t know the players so I think it took us a little bit to get used to each other. But I think after the regular season, during the first round playoff weekend at the U of W, I think we had a really good connection and really clicked and I hope we can extend that to this weekend. Overall, I’m happy with how things went,” said Ludwig.

Win or lose, the nationals stage will be a great learning experience for the up and comers on the Bisons. And for the three players in their final year with the team — Martens, Schwartz, and middle Zach Janzen — it’s the perfect way to close out a career.

“One could argue just because we’re hosting it means we technically didn’t earn the berth to nationals, but that stuff doesn’t matter to me because I get to play in it,” said Schwartz.

“Two years ago we had (fifth-year right side) Kevin Negus and we went through the whole season, got to nationals and it was cancelled. I just felt so bad for him that he ended his career with a cancellation. So, I’m really not taking anything for granted,” he added.

“Every time I look at a poster or an advertisement or marketing campaign for nationals, I watch the whole thing and take it in. I’m sure it’ll be a pretty emotional weekend for me and the other guys that are graduating.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31