Campus
January 27th 2010
Wesmen Men’s Volleyball team continues winning streak
Two wins for the men, two losses for the women as Wesmen take on Trinity Western University Spartans
Wesmen #6 Justin Duff goes in for the kill against the Trinity Western University Spartans last weekend. by Jill Brown
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times as the Wesmen volleyball teams faced off against the Trinity Western University Spartans at the Duckworth Centre last weekend.
On Friday, Jan. 22, the women played a competitive game against the fifth-ranked Spartans but unfortunately lost the fifth set, 15-8. The Spartans beat the Wesmen 3-2.
Kim Klassen was Trinity’s leader with 16 kills. The Wesmen showed some advantages, though. They had seven aced serves and six blocks.
Saturday, Jan. 23 saw the Wesmen Women’s team shut out completely, allowing the Spartans to walk home with a 3-0 win.
Winnipeg’s Alix Krahn served a hat trick of aces and Ariel Smith’s lucky 13 kills did deal some damage, but not as much as Spartans Kara Jansen Van Doorn and Carmen Dyck, who had a combined 20 kills.
The tale of the Wesmen Men’s team was the opposite. The men faced a five set, high-energy game against the Spartans Jan. 22.
Justin Duff led the Wesmen with 23 kills, while Steven Marshall led Trinity with 15. It was a high impact game, during which the Spartans didn’t let their guard down for one moment. Trinity forced a fifth set which Winnipeg had the advantage over.
Winnipeg aced two serves while the away team perfected six, but in the end, Winnipeg won 3-2 (25-18, 19-25, 25-21, 19-25, 15-12). This raised their winning streak to five matches in a row.
Saturday, Jan. 23, another five sets took place and it was another intense game. Steven Marshall was the star player for the Spartans, leading his team with 15 kills, two aced serves and seven digs.
Wesmen setter Dan Lother showed incredible endurance throughout the entire game. Lother led the Wesmen to 11 digs and delivered eight kills.
The highlight of the night was the spider monkey moves exhibited during the third set. Marc Howatson of the Spartans jumped on the officials’ table to retrieve the volleyball that was out of his reach. It shook up the media crew.
During the fourth set he also jumped over his own teammates, with one leap into the stand to retrieve another volleyball out of his reach. No one was harmed.
In the fifth set, the Wesmen proved to be the stronger team and beat the Spartans. Final game score: 3-2.
The Wesmen Men are now up to seven game wins in a row, putting their record to a new 8-5.
They’ll get a few weeks off and won’t be playing again until Wednesday, Feb. 3 at 8 p.m. at the University of Manitoba. Meanwhile, the Wesmen Women’s team will head off on the road to play against Simon Fraser University on Friday, Jan. 29 and Saturday, Jan. 30.
This article appeared in Volume 64, Number 17 of The Uniter, published January 28th 2010.
