The Winnipeg Wesmen have extended their season to a place they haven't been in more than a decade.
 
With a five-set win over the Fraser Valley Cascades on Sunday, the Wesmen women's volleyball team qualified for the Canada West Final Four, the first time since 2011-12 the Wesmen have been among the last four teams standing in the conference playoffs.
 
What that means is the UWinnipeg's season will extend at least two more weeks — and maybe more.
 
The immediate focus, however, is the next opponent up and it happens to be the top-ranked team in the country. The Wesmen will open a best-of-three semifinal series with the Trinity Western Spartans Thursday (8 p.m. CT) in Langley, B.C.
 
The series will continue Friday (8:45 p.m. CT) and Saturday (8 p.m.), if necessary.
 
The Wesmen held off an upstart Cascades team over the weekend and pulled off a victory in the third match of the best-of-three quarter-final series at the Duckworth Centre. Winnipeg won Match 1 in four sets and lost Match 2 in three sets, before securing their berth to the next round on Sunday.
 
The Wesmen are also attempting to qualify for the national championship tournament for the first time since 2002-03. A win in the semifinal series will automatically put them there, but a loss doesn't end their season. A third-place match will be held the weekend of March 10-11 with Canada West's third assigned berth to nationals in Vancouver on the line. 
 
The last time the Wesmen made the eight-team national tournament, they came home with a silver medal.