CALGARY — The Winnipeg Wesmen finished off a first-round upset in convincing fashion Sunday afternoon.
The Wesmen men's volleyball team pulled off a big first-set comeback and swept the No. 2-seed Mount Royal Cougars 3-0 (27-25, 25-22, 25-22) to claim the third and deciding match in the best-of-three conference quarter-final series at Kenyon Court.
The Wesmen, who won Match 1 but were forced to play Sunday after falling in five on Saturday, advance to take on the Trinity Western Spartans in a best-of-three semifinal series that starts Thursday in Langley, B.C. The winner automatically qualifies for nationals, while the losing team will go to a last-chance qualifier in a single-elimination bronze medal match the following weekend.
The seventh-seeded Wesmen, who had lost two conference matches to the Cougars in Calgary at the end of January, pulled off the only upset of the first round and they have a key first-set rally to thank in part for it.
The Wesmen trailed 21-14 after a
Nigel Nielsen attack error, but strung together seven straight points as Nielsen and Koop both notched kills and teamed up on a block during the run that tied the set. Later, the Wesmen fought off a set point at 25-24 with a kill from
Isaiah Olfert, an ace from
Jaxon Rose and then won the set when Rose's serve was passed tight to the net and setter Samson Olsen crossed the centre line.
Winnipeg led by three throughout most of the second set and, in the third, broke an 8-8 tie by winning eight of the next 10 points to stretch its lead to six, an advantage it held up to 20-14. The Cougars cut it down to 20-17, but the Wesmen won four of the next five to go up 24-18. After the Cougars won four straight, the Wesmen finished the match off with an Olfert kill off the hands.
Nielsen led the Wesmen with 11 kills and hit .280, and Olfert notched 10 on 19 swings for a .421 efficiency. Koop hit .667 with nine kills as well as two aces and three block assists.
The Wesmen hit .375 while MRU attacked at .258.
Chris Byam's 16 kills led the Cougars.
