EDMONTON - The Pandas reached into every point-scoring avenue they could in a 3-1 (18-25, 25-21, 25-19, 25-13) victory Friday evening at the Saville Centre.
In super-setter Justine Kolody's home season debut, she was more than able to spread the ball around, with five Pandas reaching the five-plus kill mark. But while they hit .288 as a team, they were out-attacked for most of the night by a Wesmen squad that was able to find holes through a normally strong Alberta blockline. They relied on other modes of racking up points on Winnipeg, including outserving (nine aces to three) and outblocking (eight to five) the visitors, and frankly, also relied on some Wesmen unforced errors, including two positional faults. The U SPORTS #1-ranked Pandas have won five straight, and sit atop the Canada West with a 13-2 record.
The Wesmen had a spirited game behind an at-times lethal attack, with Megan Kendziora leading the game with 14 kills. They hit .204 and out-attacked their hosts by a 142-113 (55 to 44 in kills) margin. Their undoing was an Alberta team that straightened up defensively after the opening frame, and some unforced errors that eroded momentum. They slide to 5-10, but still sit in a play-in position for the Canada West playoffs.
Winnipeg was not phased by the Saville home crowd, as they went on a 9-3 run after losing the first few points to take a 16-10 lead mindset, led by strong defence and Brooke Duncalfe, who had four of her set-high five kills in the stretch. They would hold this lead to the end of a 25-18 set win, where they hit a blistering .455 against an Alberta defence that is generally one of the best in the conference.
The Pandas recovered in the second frame, and even with a very late Winnipeg push, were able to take an exciting set 25-21. They cut the Wesmen's attacking percentage more than in half, as well as sporting an efficient .273 mark themselves. Allie Moore was a catalyst in the rebound with her three kills, service ace, and block leading the way for the home side.
If they did not have it in the second, they fully captured the momentum in a strong Pandas third set in which they won 25-19. They hit .300 and only made two attacking errors, while the Wesmen hit a cool .135, forced in part due to a very strong Alberta blockline that made things increasingly difficult for the visitors. Interestingly, no Panda was over the 10-kill mark by this point, displaying the depth scoring that they touted to this point.
The final set was looking to be a tightly contested affair, inching forward all the way to 12-11 for the hosts when a Panda timeout changed the frame. From there, they would outscore the Wesmen with an impressive 13-3 to put the set and game to bed.
The two squads return to action tomorrow, with first serve happening at 5PM MST.
