EDMONTON - The #3-seeded Manitoba Bisons rode a fiery offensive performance to the 2025 Canada West Bronze Medal with a 3-1 victory over the Saskatchewan Huskies Saturday evening at the Saville Centre.
The defending Canada West champions, and upcoming U SPORTS Nationals hosts, were terrific on the offensive side of the ball, hitting .341 overall and stifling a third-ranked Huskies blockline that made life difficult for opponents all throughout the CW playoffs.
Reigning two-time CW Player of the Year Raya Surinx paced all players with 25 kills in the match, hitting .426 on the day and was a massive part of the medal-winning result. Her kills total was the most in a four set playoff match in the rally scoring era in program history.
"I think we are pretty close to where we want to be. Obviously this weekend didn't end the way we wanted, but we didn't want to think all year about having the automatic in to nationals. We wanted to earn our way in," said Surinx. "We wanted to put our all into every match, and that's what we have done. And I think that has helped with our preparation."
Saskatchewan, who has played their best volleyball of the year since finishing eighth in the conference, was great at times on Saturday but was unable to contain a Bisons attack that finished leading in the conference in kills per set. Canada West All-Star Taryn Hannah led the Dogs with 16 kills on the day, while setter Tielle Hagel was perfect orchestrating her offence finishing with 41 assists to no errors.
"We definitely learned a lot from yesterday's game and came back today and played a much more consistent style of volleyball," said Huskies head coach Mark Dodds. "We executed much better, so definitely proud of my team for how they came out and performed today."
The Bisons got off to a fiery 7-2 start in the opening set, thanks to a .500 attacking percentage that would only improve as the set marched on. Surinx paced all scorers with six kills in the frame as Manitoba took this one relatively painlessly 25-18, committing only one error against 15 kills in the frame which was good for an incendiary .609 hitting percentage.
Saskatchewan was able to shake off the rust in the second frame by displaying an incredibly strong blockline led by Jessica Bergstrom that was able to get them out to a 16-12 lead by preventing a strong Bisons attack from getting going. A late 5-0 Manitoba run, however, would knot the game up at 22-all as the Huskies made some key unforced errors setting up and exciting set finish. Enter Abbey Klein, Huskies set kills leader, who hit two of the last three points within the Bisons lines for a 25-22 Saskatchewan set win.
Four errors in the first ten rallies nearly sunk the Huskies right off the bat in the third set as the Bison got out to an 8-2 lead. Though they levelled off from the freefall and saw a five-kill performance from Taryn Hannah, the Bisons had all of the momentum they needed, hitting .423
in the set en route to a 25-16 massively important set three victory. Surinx led Manitoba with a set-high six kills, while Light Uchechukwu added three kills and two blocks.
The fourth set was easily the best of the day, as both teams hit their stride in a frame that saw many long rallies in the Saville Competition Gym. The Bisons struck first, getting out to a 12-7 lead on the back of some efficient attacking. Saskatchewan would not back down though, going on a subsequent 10-5 run to even the game at 17 setting up an exciting game down the stretch. But, despite some great rallies, Manitoba would take the next four straight points amidst a xx-xx stretch run to take set four and the match.
Both squads will take flight at the 2025 U SPORTS Women's Volleyball Championship in Winnipeg next Friday, where they will join the Alberta Pandas and UBC Thunderbirds in a bid for a fifth-straight national champion out of the Canada West.
