COUGARS FALL IN QUARTERFINAL
REGINA (CP) – The University of Manitoba Bisons defeated the Ottawa Gee-Gees in three sets 25-17, 25-23, 25-16 on Friday to advance to the semifinal round of the CIS women’s volleyball championship.
The Bisons will meet the Dalhousie University Tigers in Saturday’s semifinal.
In other quarter-final action, the UBC Thunderbirds secured their place in the semifinal with a 3-1 win over the hometown Regina Cougars. UBC will play the Laval Rouge et Or, who triumphed over the McMaster University Marauders in a 3-0 decision, on Saturday.
Rachel Cockrell led Manitoba with 16 kills on 34 attempts. Taylor Pischke added 11 kills for the Bisons to go along with three service aces and seven digs, and Brittany Habing recorded 30 assists for Manitoba.
Myriam English was the kill leader for the Gee-Gees with seven, while Kaly Soro had six. Kira Tome pitched in with 19 assists and 11 digs. Stephanie Theiler recorded 10 digs for Ottawa and Kelsie English contributed a match-high four blocks.
Ottawa will meet the Trinity Western Spartans in a consolation semifinal Saturday afternoon.
The Gee-Gees stuck close with the Bisons in the opening set, only trailing by two at the technical timeout, but Manitoba went on a run and closed out the set by scoring nine of the next 12 points.
Ottawa came out strong in the second set and led 16-15 at the technical, and then scored seven of the next 12 points to lead the Bisons 23-20. Manitoba rattled off five straight points to shock the Gee-Gees and take the set 25-23. That set included eight ties and four lead changes.
The third set was tied at 12 before Manitoba scored eight straight points and cruised to a 25-16 victory.
Manitoba registered 40 kills as a team, hitting .208. Ottawa was held to just .084 at 27 kills.
Earlier in the day, Dalhousie advanced to the semifinal with a four-set victory over the Spartans. Set scores were 25-21, 15-25, 25-19 and 25-23.
With its upset of No. 3 Trinity Western, Dalhousie became the first Atlantic University Sport team to reach the CIS women’s volleyball semifinal round since 1984, when the Tigers won silver.
Dalhousie is also the only AUS team to win the CIS women’s volleyball championship, when they did so in 1982.
