They are the defending national champions for a reason, and Friday night the Alberta Golden Bears showed what it takes to garner that No. 1 spot.

The Winnipeg Wesmen managed a second-set win to tie the match, but the No. 1-ranked Bears cruised through Sets 3 and 4 to hand the Wesmen a 3-1 (25-22, 17-25, 25-14, 25-14) defeat in the team's Canada West men's volleyball home-opener at the Duckworth Centre. 

Nigel Nielsen had 12 kills and eight digs to lead the Wesmen, who hit .320 in the second set, but hit -.107 the rest of the way in losing their first match of the season to fall to 2-1. Alberta, which hit .370 on the night, improved to 2-1. 

Paxton Koop had four first-set kills and finished with six. Eric Dornez and Liam Kristjanson both had seven, with Kristjanson hitting .357. 

"Top team in the country, defending champions. I told the guys before the match that's the fun games you want to play in," Wesmen interim head coach Rob Olfert said. "You want to match yourself up and see where you're at. I think the first set we started off a little bit slower. They dictated pace and I think three-quarters through the set we started to settle in a little bit. And then we had a great second set. I don't think it was their best, but we played fairly clean and they showed how defending champs respond after a defeat. And we weren't able to match their execution and intensity. That's what we're going to try and work on and be ready for tomorrow. 

The teams will match up again Saturday at 5 p.m. Tickets are available online now.
 
Jordan Canham led U of A with 16 kills and seven digs and setter Cam Kern had four kills on five attempts while adding seven digs of his own. 

Canham also had three aces as the Bears put pressure on Winnipeg's serve-receive for most of the night. 

"They're big. They've got three, four, five guys who can just rip balls back there," Olfert said. "We tried a couple different looks but they definitely took control of the serve-and-receive battle in the third and fourth set, and in volleyball that's the biggest part. That's usually how you win and lose games."