| Manitoba 3, Saskatchewan 0 |
February 3 - The University of Manitoba Bisons mens volleyball team has broke the .500 mark. The Zoons (9-8) fought off the University of Saskatchewan Huskies (8-9) 3-0 (25-16, 25-21, 25-17) Saturday afternoon at Investors Group Athletic Centre. Toon van Lankvelt led the boisterous Bisons with 13 kills and Josh Klassen came in second with seven. Setter Kyle Joslin had 28 assists, while Klassen had six digs and two services aces – as did Nathan Toews – in the all-Bison contest. The Manitoba men wasted no time hitting their stride right off the first set and had an 8-2 jump at the first technical. Thanks to an absolutely solid swinging and blocking game by Klassen, the Zoons were up 16-11 at the second TO and kept their wide lead right up until the end, when captain Jeff Zylstra shut down the Huskies offence with a monster block for the 25-16 set. Despite going into the second set on fire, the Bisons fell slightly behind early on and had to depend on defence to get them back on top. Luckily, Klassen, Zylstra, Toews, Matt Balchin, and van Lankvelt became a rotating wall at the net and tipped the set back in Manitoba’s favor by the second technical. The Zoons took their 16-13 jump and ran with it and – again with a lot of help from Klassen’s blocking, swinging and serving – came out on top of the 25-21 second set. Toews got the third and final set started with a service ace and led Manitoba to four-straight unanswered points off the top. Saskatchewan clawed back and trailed by only two at the first technical, but Zylstra, van Lankvelt and Klassen resumed their wall and pulled the Herd back up by six by the second technical. The Bisons did not look back after the second technical and gave up only six points before the game ended on a van Lankvelt kill. The Bisons face off against the Huskies again Sunday afternoon. Game time is 3 p.m. CT. |