WINNIPEG — The Winnipeg Wesmen are moving on after a dominant victory in the opening round of the Canada West women's volleyball playoffs.
Brooke Duncalfe had a career-high five aces and the Wesmen dropped the Calgary Dinos 3-0 (25-14, 28-26, 25-16) in Match 2 of the best-of-three play-in series Friday night at the Duckworth Centre.
The Wesmen swept the series after taking a five-setter in Match 1 on Thursday.
In Match 2, the Dinos weren't able to find their footing early and then missed a chance to get on level terms in the second set, squandering three set points and making five service errors after 18 points. After taking a 22-21 lead, the Dinos made three service errors that continued to give the Wesmen life.
Selva Planincic had 10 kills and 14 digs to once again lead Winnipeg, which now advances to a quarter-final series against the Alberta Pandas next week in Edmonton.
Duncalfe had a run of four straight kills herself in the second set as the Wesmen battled back from an early 7-3 deficit and went on to take an 8-7 lead.
She finished with nine kills and 11 digs and
Emily Lavallee, who had a three-point run of her own in the third set, also had nine kills and 2.5 blocks.
Ella Werbiski had 11 digs and
Taylor Cangemi 10 as part of the 57 total, which represented a season-high in a three-set match for the Wesmen.
A night after tallying 11 aces in five sets, the Wesmen scored nine in winning their fifth straight match and extending their win streak against the Dinos to seven matches dating back to February 2020.
"Both nights we served really well and tonight we did the same thing as last night. We put them out of system a lot, which really helps our blocking scheme," said Wesmen head coach
Phil Hudson, whose team had seven total blocks. "We attacked the ball with a lot of variety. We got more offence out of our middle players compared to yesterday because we serve-received better and I thought our blocking was better."
Daisy Olsen's eight kills and 11 digs led the Dinos, who hit .153 for the match. Miranda Baines had seven and 10 digs, and Sophia Hansen had 12 digs.
"We weren't in system very much," Dinos head coach Christine Biggs said. "I think that's part of our style of play to be comfortable in system and out of system, and obviously there's different opportunities in both but we didn't look comfortable today.
"I think, unfortunately, our compete wasn't there through the night. And I think that impacts how we're capable of executing."
Winnipeg's best-of-three series against the Pandas will start Thursday with Match 2 on Friday and Match 3, if necessary, Saturday. Each match will start at 7 p.m. Central and can be viewed live on
Canada West TV.