EDMONTON - It was a complete reversal of fortune for the Winnipeg Wesmen on Saturday night, as they swept the Alberta Golden Bears 3-0 (25-18, 25-23, 25-21) at the Saville Centre after being swept just the night before.

The reversal can be explained largely on the attack, as Winnipeg went from a season-worst offensive performance to a scorcher this evening, hitting .409 as a team and finding holes in an otherwise strong Bears blockline. Luke Lodewyks led the way for the Wesmen with a team-high 12 kills, while Aidan Hruska had eight kills and hit .500. They move to 9-7 on the year, and sit in fifth place in the conference.

It was a poor showing from the home Alberta team, who just never seemed to get comfortable in the match hitting .173 and letting the Wesmen get a ton of room to work on offence. They made 20 errors on the attack, compared to eight for the visitors, in a major flashpoint of the game.     Matt Shand led the game with 15 kills, and added five digs in one of the better performances on the day for the 9-5 Bears, who are still in fourth place in the conference.

It was a high-octane opening set, with 27 kills between the two squads along with only 2.5 total blocks. However, the Wesmen were certainly the more impressive of the two, hitting a staggering .571 in the frame leading to a 25-18 victory. Luke Lodewyks led the visitors with five kills, while Matt Shand paced the hosts with five of his own. A big reason why the Wesmen won the opener was because they only made one error in attack, while the Bears made six.

The Wesmen would continue to confound the Bears defence in the second set, jumping out to an 18-13 lead behind a .580 hitting percentage. However, a Jacob Sargeant ace mid-set would galvanize Alberta enough to pull the game back to 23-23. But Alberta would make two straight attacking errors in a microcosm of the game at-large as the Wesmen would take the second set 25-23.

The third set was also a tight one, with the Wesmen capturing an early lead but never had a margin of more than three as the set inched on. The Bears would get as close as 22-19, but a service error would sink their chances as the visitors won this one 25-19.

Next weekend, the Bears travel to take on the Thompson Rivers WolfPack, while the Wesmen return home for a rivalry series against the Manitoba Bisons.