| Bison
Place Fourth at CanWest Final Four Saskatchewan 3, Manitoba 0 |
| Feb. 26 - The No. 3 Saskatchewan Huskies and No. 4 Manitoba Bisons met today in the Canada West Bronze medal match, after yesterday's defeats to No. 2 Trinity Western Spartans and No. 1 Alberta Golden Bears, respectively. The CIS defending national champions came out on top, winning in three straight sets. Both teams, as well as the Spartans and Bears, had already qualified for the CIS National Championships prior to this weekend. The Huskies won the first set quite confidently by a score of 25-20. The second set brought on many service errors for the green & white, with the Huskies up only 8-6 going into the technical time-out. The Bisons tied it up at 12 and again at 14, taking the first lead on a big block by Jeremy King and Joel Schmuland putting the Bisons up 15-14. The Bisons maintained the lead until Second Team Canada West All-Star Kris Brand stepped up with a big serve for the Huskies and Gavin Little finished off the play with a kill, tying the score at 22-apiece. First Team All-Star Mark Dodds got the next kill to give the Huskies back their lead at 23-22. The Huskies went on to win the set 25-23. The Huskies were on fire in the final set. The Bisons called a time-out, already down 3-0, two points that came from Kris Brand service aces. Brand came back into the match to get another service ace to give the Huskies a 4-0 lead. At the technical time-out, the Dogs were up 8-4. Service errors were coming from both sides of the net, but the Huskies continued their dominance and had a 16-9 lead going into the second technical time-out. The Bisons battled back and came within three at 23-20, when Huskie Head Coach Brian Gavlas called a time-out. Huskie Gavin Little was serving the game point, and went straight into the net. With the score at 24-22, the Bisons responded with their own service error to give the green & white the match win. Leading the way for the Huskies was Kris Brand with 13 kills. Sean Jones and Matt Balchin had eight kills each, and Balchin also had the game high of eight defensive digs. |