Wesmen defeat WolfPack and Advance to Final Four

By SHELDON APPELLE
University of Winnipeg Sports Information Director
February 18 2007

On Saturday, the Winnipeg Wesmen regrouped from last nights game one upset and defeated the Thompson Rivers Wolfpack 3-1 (18-25, 26-24, 25-18, 25-19) to even the best of three Canada West semi-final series at 1-1.

Things did not look good good for the Wesmen in the first set, trailing 8-6 and 16-14 at the technical timeouts. The Wesmen did close the gap to within one, but the WolfPack reeled off six straight points on their way to winning the first set 25-18.

In the second set Winnipeg fell behind 24-20 but were able to fight back to win the set 26-24 on a big Ben Schellenberg block at the net. Head Coach Larry McKay made a change in the line-up that proved to be a big factor in the match, inserting first year middle Justin Duff, who made a huge impact on the match.
 
The Wesmen showed their dominance in the third set racing out to a quick 5-1 lead on their way to a 25-18 set win.

In the fourth set Winnipeg was able to jump ahead at both timeouts, 8-6 and 16-13, while taking advantage of several Thompson Rivers errors to win the fourth set 25-19.

Fifth year outside Richard Wiebe led the Wesmen with a match high 19 kills, followed by Ben Schellenberg with 12. Justin Duff finished with six kills and four blocks.

Robin Schoebel led the WolfPack with 17 kills and 10 defensive digs. Winnipeg had 11 solo blocks, compared to two for Thompson Rivers.

The third and deciding match will be played Sunday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. (Wpg time). The winner of the series will move on to the Canada West Final Four and an automatic spot in the CIS Championship.

On Sunday, the Winnipeg Wesmen advanced to the Canada West Final Four after defeating the Thompson Rivers WolfPack 3-1 (25-18, 22-25, 25-21, 25-15) to win the best of three semi-final series 2-1.

The Wesmen came out on fire in the first set racing out to leads of 8-5 and 16-10 at the set breaks. At the end of the first set first year middle Justin Duff came thru with two huge kills to propel Winnipeg to a 25-18 first set win.

The WolfPack fought back in set number two as they went up 19-13 on the Wesmen. Winnipeg was able to mount a comeback reeling off five straight points to close the gap to 19-18. The WolfPack regrouped and eventually won the second 25-22 to even the match.

In the third set Winnipeg took full advantage of several WolfPack errors and were able to total 10 kills in the set to win the second set 25-21.

The Wesmen were looking to close things out in set number four and were able to do just that keeping Thompson Rivers off balance with key blocks and timely kills to win the match ending set 25-15.

Fourth year opposite Ben Schellenberg led Winnipeg with 17 kills and six blocks (three solo). Fourth year setter Dustin Addison-Schneider had a strong match for the Wesmen finishing with 41 assists and eight defensive digs.

Robin Schoebel led Thompson Rivers with 13 kills.

The Wesmen will head to Edmonton for the Canada West Final Four, which begins on Thursday night.