Thanks to their closest rivals, the Winnipeg Wesmen will head into their final series of the season with faint hopes of hosting a playoff round still alive.

The Wesmen men's volleyball team completed a weekend sweep of Manitoba Saturday, taking down the Bisons 3-1 (21-25, 25-21, 25-22, 25-17) in a Canada West conference match at the Duckworth Centre.

Winnipeg remained mathematically in the mix for one of the top-four positions in the conference and, with that, a chance to host a quarter-final series. The Wesmen are now in fifth place at 13-9 and are a full two matches back of both UBC and Saskatchewan, who sit at 14-6. The Wesmen would need to sweep Calgary in their season-ending series next weekend at the Duckworth and then need help to slip into the fourth position. 

For now, however, the Wesmen can feel good about getting back into the win column after a two-loss weekend last week at Mount Royal. The Wesmen have now won five of their last seven. 

After the Bisons hit .440 in a first-set win, the Wesmen tightened up their defence as the Bisons efficiency dropped to .226, .091 and .095 in the following sets. The Bisons, who had 14 kills and just three errors in the first, and 11 and four in the second, managed just 14 kills with nine errors in Sets 3 and 4.

Winnipeg has now won five straight in conference play against the Bisons and seven out of the last 10 meetings. During the five-match run, the Wesmen have dropped just four sets to the Bisons. 

Nigel Nielsen led the Wesmen with 15 kills, Isaiah Olfert had 13 and two aces, and Jaxon Rose recorded a career-high eight kills with eight digs. Alex Krykewich recorded his fifth double-digit match in digs with 12 and moved into sixth in the country for digs in a season with 158, which is tops among setters. 

He also had a match-high three aces. 

The Wesmen hit .327 for the match, including .571 in the second when they made just one error on 21 swings. Manitoba (11-9) attacked at a .209 clip for the match.

Karil Dadash Adeh had 12 kills to lead the Bisons, who sit in the eighth and final playoff spot, a match ahead of Thompson Rivers with both teams having four matches to be played.