REGINA — The Winnipeg Wesmen did themselves a big favour while the rest of the Canada West conference gained no ground heading into the final night of the season.

Christine Kolbuck had a highly-efficient 11 kills and the Wesmen women's volleyball team downed the Regina Cougars 3-0 (25-29, 25-19, 25-22) in the penultimate match of the conference season, a win that pushed the Wesmen to the brink of securing their fourth playoff spot in as many seasons. 

Kolbuck made no errors on 17 swings and hit .647 for the Wesmen (9-14), who surged past Saskatchewan into the eighth and final playoff spot. The Huskies lost at Manitoba while two other hopeful teams who came into the night with the same record as Winnipeg — Thompson Rivers and Calgary — also won their matches to improve to 9-14. The Wolfpack and Dinos, however, remain behind the Wesmen based on points, and a three- or four-set win in the finale on Saturday will give the Wesmen eighth spot at worst.

A scenario still exists where the Wesmen could catch UBC-Okanagan for seventh, but that would require a Wesmen win plus UBCO losing in straight sets to MacEwan. 

On Friday, the Wesmen weren't dominant per se, but against the 1-22 Cougars, they didn't need to be. 

They opened decisive early leads in each set — 9-4 in the first; 12-6 in the second; 9-2 in the third — and were only moderately threatened once when the Cougars came from 20-14 down and managed to pull to 23-22. The Wesmen, however, called timeout and Grace Vallis immediately got a kill to right the ship and the Wesmen won the match when Piper Harkness' kill sailed wide on the next point.

Selva Planincic had 10 kills and 12 digs, her seventh straight match with double-digit digs, and third straight double-double. 

Devyn Grimsrud had eight kills and five block assists to pace the Cougars. 

The two teams meet again at 6 p.m. Saturday in a match that can be seen on Canada West TV.