CIS men's volleyball Friday roundup: Tigers top V-Reds 3-2 in opening match of AUS final

Source: Dalhousie Sports Information

HALIFAX, N.S. – The Dalhousie Tigers defeated the UNB Varsity Reds Friday night by a score of  3-2 in the opening match of the 2014 Subway AUS men's volleyball championship Friday night at the Dalplex.
 
With the win, the Tigers take a 1-0 lead in the best two-of-three championship series. Set scores were (26-24 Dal, 26-24 UNB, 25-21 Dal, 25- 15-12 Dal)
 
Subway Player of the Game Bryan Duquette led the game in points tonight with 24 points and 23 kills.
 
Fellow Tigers star Alex Dempsey posted impressive stats for Dalhousie as well with 20 points and 16 kills. Connor Maessen played a solid game for the Tigers with 11 kills and 17.5 points in total.
 
Marc White was the leading scorer for the V-Reds with 12 kills and 14.5 kills overall. Julio Fernandez and Craig Toonders also played a great game for UNB, with 22.5 points between them.
 
"The Tigers kept you on your toes; they came out of nowhere to complete plays that were so unexpected," said a fan in attendance who never misses a Tigers home game. "It will be an entertaining match next Friday."
 
The best two-of-three Subway AUS men's volleyball championship will resume next weekend in Fredericton as the Tigers will once again take on the Varsity Reds in a 7 p.m. match Saturday night at the Richard J. Currie Center.
 
The match can be seen live via webcast at www.AUStv.ca.

Source: Fraser Caldwell, McMaster Communications

It was a dominant, statement performance from the Marauders that saw them cruise past the typically-dangerous York Lions on Friday night.
 
McMaster took an early lead and never looked back, sweeping York 25-21, 25-19 and 25-10 to move to 18-1 on the season and clinch the top spot in the OUA. Meanwhile, the Lions fall to 12-7 and come under threat by the Ryerson Rams (11-7) for fourth place.
 
Second-year outside Stephen Maar had one of the best efforts of his young career on Friday, pacing the Marauders with 16 points while converting on 12 of 19 hitting attempts with just a single error (57.9 per cent) and adding four aces. Fellow outside Jayson McCarthy was similarly efficient, converting eight of 14 attempts versus two errors (42.9 per cent) while adding two aces and two total blocks.
 
McMaster held the OUA's most prolific scorer to a quiet offensive night, as Ray Szeto was 5-12 from the floor with four errors (8.3 per cent) on Friday. Marko Dakic led all Lions with 7.5 points, converting seven of 18 hitting attempts with six errors.
 
The teams began the night evenly matched, with the Marauders guarding Szeto effectively, but being exploited by the likes of Dakic and Nicholas Pirnat on the outside. Both teams struggled to serve effectively in the early stages, but McMaster's efforts from the service line began to improve as the first set progressed.
 
Separation came late, as the Marauders punished a few badly timed errors from the Lions, and raced toward the finish line.
 
The second set began much like the first, but McMaster began to assert its dominance with a well-organized block, and an increasingly dangerous cast at the service line. Maar, Mantha and McCarthy were all finding the range with their spin serves, and causing defensive havoc among the Lions. The Marauders led 16-13 at the technical timeout, but immediately built upon that lead in the ensuing rallies. York had no answers as McMaster comfortably closed out the set for a commanding 2-0 lead.
 
Having taken firm control of momentum, the Marauders showed no signs of relinquishing it in the third, and raced out to a healthy early lead. That advantage grew to 16-6 at the technical timeout, with York effectively resigned to defeat. McMaster continued the assault from the service line, and York won just four of the match's final 13 points.
 
Their final position is assured, but the Marauders will conclude their conference season tomorrow, when they welcome the Nipissing Lakers to the Burridge Gym. That match will follow the preceding women's match, and is slated to get underway at 8:00 p.m.

Source: Daire McClory, Western Sports Info

WATERLOO, Ont. – With six consecutive wins in hand, the Western Mustangs men's volleyball team headed to Waterloo on Friday in the hopes of a grabbing a seventh and accomplished just that, defeating the Warriors 3-2 by set scores of (25-23, 25-21, 20-25, 25-23, 15-13).
 
With the win, the men's team has now clinched second place in the OUA and therefore earns a bye into the OUA final four, giving extra emphasis to what was already a big and exciting victory.
 
The first set saw both teams neck in neck all the way up until they were tied at 23 all. With only a two points left for the win, Western took the set 25-23 using their strong offensive skills to produce the necessary kills.
 
The Warriors took an immediate four-point lead at the beginning of the second set with help from some strong offensive play and by the technical time-out of the second set they were leading 16-14. Western continued to work on closing the gap between the two teams' scores but Waterloo kept fighting, taking another big lead at 20-15. The Mustangs did add five points to the board to tie it up at 20-20 but the Warriors were able to finish the job, winning the set 25-21.
 
With both teams tied 1-1, the third set started with Western making a comeback and taking a lead before Waterloo tied the set up at 12-12. The Mustangs continued to add points to the board, even taking the lead at technical-time out by a score of 16-13, but after the time out the Warriors fought back to tie the set at 19-19 before clinching the lead and winning 25-20.
 
The fourth set saw a lot of action from the start with Waterloo determined to take the win. The two teams went point for point with Waterloo fighting to gain a 16-15 lead but the Mustangs came back to take a 22-21 lead before finishing the set up at 25-23. 
 
The fifth set was to be the decider with the teams tied 2-2. The Mustangs took a quick 8-5 lead but it didn't last for long as the two teams soon found themselves tied at 10-10, showing that the Warriors weren't going to make this easy for the Mustangs.  However the Western team persevered, using their offensive skills to finish the set 15-13 and take the match 3-2. 
 
Luke Sim was a standout for the Western side, earning a team-high 12 kills on the night, while Justin Scapinello led the defense with 10 digs.
 
On Waterloo's side, Zach Doherty and Aleks Poldma led the Warriors with 13 kills apiece while Erich Woolley was stellar on defense, making a match-leading 22 digs.
 
The purple and white continue their journey to the finals taking on Guelph University on Saturday, February 8 at 8:00 p.m.

Source: Guelph Sports Info

Guelph, Ont. - The Guelph Gryphon's men's volleyball team were defeated by the visiting Windsor Lancers 3-1 on Friday night at the W.F. Mitchell Centre. Set scores were 23-25, 25-18, 25- 4, and 25-19. The loss drops the Gryphon's record to 5-14 on the season.

First year Joshua Green led the Gryphons with 13 points (11 kills, 1 ace, 1 block) while Luke Woud contributed nine kills and Eric Wagner had nine digs.

The Lancers were led by Gabriel Burlacu with a game-high 14 points (11 kills, 2 aces, 1 block).

Guelph jumped to an early 3-0 lead in the first set thanks to two aces from Kyle Richards. A few points later Guelph’s Luke Woud hit a monster smash to extend the Gryphon’s lead to 5-1 over the Lancers. This spurred a comeback from Windsor, as they would go on a 5-0 run to take the 6-5 lead. The two sides would exchange points, eventually battling to a 10-10 tie. Both teams battled through the next ten points, with each side taking five points to keep the game tied at 15. The first set continued to be close, as yet another kill from Luke Woud tied things up at 20. After Guelph jumped to a late 22-21 lead, they would take three of the next five points to close out the first set on top of the Lancer’s 25-23.

The second set started with the Gryphon’s and Lancer’s taking three points each. Windsor would rally to take the lead, 11-8. While the two teams treated fans to a few long, exciting rallies, the Lancer’s would be on the winning end of most rallies, giving them a commanding 16-10 lead. Luke Woud was a consistent threat for the Gryphon’s in the second set, with multiple hard kills. However, these efforts would not be enough to swing the set, as Windsor jumped to a 19-13 lead, and despite Guelph’s best attempt at a comeback, the Lancers would take the set 25-18.

The third set opened with more even play, as things were tied up at 5, 6, and 7. Neither squad was willing to surrender momentum to the other. Windsor would eventually snatch the momentum and the lead, taking the next seven points to go up 14-7, and then 18-10. The Lancer’s would finish off the Gryphon’s in the third set, taking it 25-14.

Windsor looked to finish off the Gryphon’s for good in the fourth set, jumping out to a quick 5-1 lead. Guelph would battle back to make it a one-point game, trailing 9-8 to the Lancers. After exchanging points Windsor would eventually extend their lead to 17-13. Guelph would battle to make it closer, trailing 18-16. Despite Guelph’s best effort’s to come back in the set, the Lancers would take the set 25-19 to win the match 3-1.

The Gryphon’s play again Saturday (Feb. 8) night at home against the Western Mustangs at 8:00 p.m. to close out their regular season schedule.

Source: Lindsay Franco, Calgary Multimedia & Communications Coordinator

CALGARY – The No. 9 Brandon Bobcats defeated the University of Calgary Dinos 3-0 (27-29, 26-28, 18-25) in a very important game to help determine the final spots in the Canada West men’s volleyball playoff race.

With the loss, the Dinos fall to 10-11 while Brandon improves to the same record. A number of matches will need to be completed tomorrow night to have a clear picture of who qualifies for playoffs and who does not. Calgary is still in contention.

Greg Mann recorded a team-high 16 kills on the night as the only player to reach double digits. He also had nine kills. Connor Frehlich added nine kills for the Dinos and Andrew Visser scored another eight. Setter Jackson Maris recorded 33 assists.

For the Bobcats, Sebastien Steigmeier recorded a game-high 21 kills on the night, along with ten digs. Dan Boutwell and Sam Truvai followed that up with 13 and 12 kills, respectively. Setter David Stasica recorded a game-high 40 assists in the match.

Brandon took an early lead in the first set going up 12-9, but the Dinos were quick to slow their momentum, catching up at 14 all. Despite the visitors taking the lead at the technical, Calgary found a way to tie it up again, this time at 17 with a kill from Frehlich.

>From there the Dinos went up by two, forcing the Bobcats to call their first timeout. It didn’t help as Calgary held onto that lead to 21-18, forcing Brandon to call another timeout due to their struggling defence.  It was at 23 when the Bobcats tied the game up with a kill in the middle. From there, the Dinos had five set-points to finish the match, up 25-24, 26-25 and 27-26, but it was Brandon who came up with three big points in a row to win an exciting first set 29-27.

In the second, a slow start from the Dinos created a hole for them to have to crawl out of. Brandon led 16-12 at the technical. From there, both teams battled it out, with fans and benches getting involved in the action and excitement of the game. Flirting with the lead, Calgary found a way to tie the game up at 20 thanks to another important kill form Frehlich.

At 22-21, the Dinos had their first lead of the set, but the battle of the middles from both sides of the court continued. With perfect passes coming from either team, the middles were looked upon to generate offence nearing the end of the set. This one needed extra points again, and it was the No. 9 Bobcats coming out on top, taking it 28-26.

In a do-or-die third set, both teams were so close in talent that the score was tied a number of times all the way up until 12 all. It was the Bobcats that were the first team to get the first significant lead at the technical, going up 16-13.

From there, the Dinos let the lead slip away and it was too little, too late for them when they decided to try and fight back. Brandon went on to defeat the Dinos in straight sets with a 25-18 win.

In a game that will determine the fate of both team’s post season hopes, the Dinos and the Bobcats will rematch at Jack Simpson Gym. Game time is set for 6:30 p.m. The Dinos will also be celebrating six seniors at Enterprise Senior Night tomorrow.

Source: Matt Gutsch, Alberta Communications

Despite a match high 20 kills from fifth-year left-side hitter Jay Olmstead, the No.3 ranked Alberta Golden Bears dropped a 3-1 decision (27-29, 19-25, 36-34 and 25-19) to the No.4 ranked UBC Thunderbirds on Friday night at the Saville Community Sports Centre in Edmonton.

Olmstead, who hails from Edmonton, officially moved into third place on the Golden Bears’ career Canada West kills leaderboard with 858 career kills. He trails second place Pascal Cardinal (1,338) and Golden Bears’ all-time leader Dean Kakoschke, who finished his five year career with 1,393.

But, his efforts weren’t enough to lift the Bears past UBC, and as a result the Bears slip to a 14-7 record and into third place in the Canada West standings. They will, however, move onto the post-season, which begins next weekend, but they won’t know their opponent, or what position they finish in until after tomorrow night’s match against the T-Birds.

Alberta and UBC are locked in a battle for second place, which the Birds currently own, courtesy the victory tonight, but it won’t be resolved until after Saturday’s night rematch. At 15-6, UBC is two points ahead of the Golden Bears, who have now lost two straight matches, for second place, but both teams will host a playoff quarterfinal best-of-three series no matter the outcome.

The Thunderbirds got off to a strong start on Friday night, defeating Alberta 29-27 in the first of two extra point sets of the evening. Fourth-year outside hitter Quentin Schmidt had seven kills for UBC in what was a very evenly played opening set. Both teams ran 40 attacks, and both teams had four attack errors. The Birds banked one more kill than their hosts, 19 to 18, and had two more blocks. The Golden Bears shot themselves in a the foot a bit, committing three errors from the service line.

UBC was simply the sharper team in the second set, as they connected on 37% of their attacks and capitalized on Alberta’s eight attack errors and two service errors.

The third set, however, was tightly contested, and peppered with lead changes and momentum swings.

The Bears definitely were the better team in the early going, but just as quick as they established a lead, it would evaporate. The Birds also struggled holding a lead of any kind for any significant length of time. With neither team able to grab the momentum and run with it, the set veered into extra points. Ben Chow, who has represented Canada in beach volleyball, was nigh unstoppable in the third, as the 6’2” third-year outside hitter pounded down nine kills to keep the Birds in the match. Not to be outdone, Olmstead banked nine as well, as the two teams rocked the Saville Centre floor back-and-forth, and pushed the scoreboard past the 30-point barrier. Both the Bears and Birds dished out thundering points, threw up monumental blocks, and committed momentum busting errors, but eventually the Golden Bears were able to prevail 36-34. The Canada West record for highest score in a set was established in 2011 when Regina defeated Brandon 42-40.

The Bears struggled in the fourth, making 10 attack errors while connecting for just 10 kills. UBC, on the other hand, banked their fourth consecutive set at better than 30% on the attack thanks to 12 kills and just four errors.

The Birds went on to win the match 3-1 thanks to a 25-19 fourth set win.

Chow led the Birds with 18 kills, while Schmidt finished with 15. After Olmstead’s 20, Alberta got 17 from Kevin Proudfoot, including five in the fourth, while Tucker Leinweber finished with 13.

The two teams will play on Saturday at 5:00 pm to decide second place in Canada West.

Source: Nicole Betker, Saskatchewan Sports Information Director

With a 3-2 (24-26, 28-26, 26-28, 25-19, 15-10) Mount Royal University Cougars win over the No. 8 ranked University of Saskatchewan Huskies Friday night at the PAC in Saskatoon the Canada West men’s volleyball standings got a little muckier.

With the result both Mount Royal and Saskatchewan have 10-11 records, making Saturday’s contest – the final in the season – of upmost importance. Only one of the two teams can earn a playoff spot and would be on the road for the conference quarter-final series.

Entering the final weekend of the regular season, both teams needed wins to help secure a date as one of the seven teams in the postseason. Four other teams (Calgary Dinos, Brandon Bobcats, Manitoba Bisons and Winnipeg Wesmen) are also looking for playoff life with similar records.

After the first three sets needed to be decided by extra points, Mount Royal took over the match in the fourth and fifth games gaining big leads Saskatchewan couldn’t recover from.

In the first frame, Mount Royal held Saskatchewan to set point twice before a Bryan Fraser kill and a Jordan Nowakowski ace ended the game 26-24. The Huskies led 12-5 in the second set before the Cougars battled to tie the set at 22. Three Saskatchewan errors and a big block by Mount Royal landed the Cougars the 28-26 win.

Down throughout the third set, the Huskies went on an 11-3 run for a comeback 28-26 win. Middle blockers Tyler Epp and Braden McLean sealed the victory with big kills from the middle.

Mount Royal built a 12-6 lead in the fourth set and did the same in the fifth at 7-1. The closest the Huskies came win both sets was five points. Mount Royal won 25-19 and 15-10.

Colton deMan led the Cougars with an impressive match-high 26 kills. Jordan Parkin added anther 22 for the Cougars. Jordan Or recorded 22 digs in the affair.

Saskatchewan spread around the offence with five players with double-digits in kills. Paul Thomson led the group with 17 kills, followed by McLean at 13 and Nowakowski and Epp at 11.

The two teams will battle again Saturday night at the PAC in the final regular season match. First serve is 8 p.m. and can be viewed on canadawest.tv

Match Notes: Huskie Athletics donated $2208 to KidSport, the team’s charity of choice in a presentation during the volleyball match. KidSport is a children’s charity dedicated to assisting children of families facing financial obstacles to participate in community sport programs. The KidSport goal is to provide these children with the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of teamwork, dedication and responsibility through participation in sport.

Source: Larry Read, Thompson Rivers Sports Information Officer

Kamloops, BC — It was Jacob Tricarico’s night in more ways than one. 

The fifth year middle from Huntington Beach, California was honored before the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack men’s volleyball match with the Manitoba Bisons Friday night (Feb 7) at the TRU Gym.

And he made the most of it.  Tricarico had the final kill in the fourth set, one of 13 he had in the contest as the WolfPack beat the Bisons 3-1 to clinch their first ever Canada West home playoff series.  The scores were 26-24,22-25,25-21,25-20.

Thompson Rivers moves to 13 and 8 while Manitoba falls to 9-12 and is virtually eliminated from the post season.

“He had a great match,” said WolfPack head coach Pat Hennelly about Tricarico. “ He had one error and hit .600. He made some nice blocks early which helped establish what we wanted to do. I love it when a guy—on ‘his night’—comes through.”

Tricarico as honored by Hennelly by being presented by a framed number 13 sweater with his parents before the match.

Hennelly felt that the entire team—especially playing without arguably the Canada West player of the year Brad Gunter (3rd year, outside hitter, Courtenay, BC) came up with a great effort. “  It took us a little while to transition to life without Brad,” said Hennelly. “ When you lose six points in a set and the top guy in the country that is a transition.  We said we had to do it by committee and everyone had to step up. That is what happened tonight.   I give credit to everyone on the team including those who came off the bench to do what they had to do. Everyone contributed.”

The WolfPack were led by Casey Knight (4th year, outside hitter, Salt Spring Island, BC) with 19 kills in 44 opportunities.

Colin Carson (5th year, setter, Prince George, BC) had 47 assists.

Stuart Richey (4th year, outside hitter, Gibsons, BC) had a team high 11 digs.

Hennelly felt both his middles—Tricarico and Daniel Eiekland Rod (2nd year, Os, Norway) had monster games.   “Both have been having been taking turns having great nights. We need to keep that going. If we get those two guys hitting well and Brad (Gunter) adding to the offense it makes it even more potent. Credit to Carson for finding ways to look for guys.”

Rod wound up with eight kills in 14 chances including two key service aces in the fourth set.

Manitoba was led by Devren Dear (2nd year, outside hitter, St. Andrews, MB)  with 14 kills in 25 swings.  Adam DeJonckheere (1st year, outside hitter, Winnipeg, MB)  had 11 kills in 29 chances while Luke Herr (2nd year, setter, Three Hills, AB) had 39 assists.

The victory cemented TRU’s chances of hosting a Canada West quarterfinal series next week. It’s the first time that the school has hosted Canada West playoff action.  It seems fitting it is men’s volleyball who gets the honor. They were the first team to make Canada West playoffs eight years ago.

“It is special for Colin Carson, Spencer Reed (5th year, libero/outside hitter, Prince George, BC) and for Jake,” Hennelly explains. “ Colin and Spencer were here for the good times and the bad. Now they are seeing a resurrection of the program.  I want to be good every year.  But this is even sweeter. We were the worst team in Canada West two years ago. Now we are hosting.  We have a lock on fourth and a chance on third. We have exceeded our expectations and the credit for that has to go to our senior guys.  “

The two teams will close out the Canada West regular season on Saturday (Feb 8) with a 6:45 pm match at the TRU Gym.

SIDE OUTS:  Hennelly on the large crowd at the tiny TRU Gym: “ It was great.  I am glad we played here.  We have to get used to that. Even the Manitoba girls cheering loud was good because it reverbed off the walls and onto the court.  There were 600 fans here tonight. It was almost like having 12 hundred.  The noise keeps  rattling around the gym. In the first set, it bothered us as much as Manitoba.  We are used to Carson calling for the ball.  There were some rallies where we expected him to get it but we couldn’t hear. Once we got rolling, the crowd was obviously the “8 th person in volleyball.” You could see our guys respond.

On Saturday, the team will honor their other two fifth year players—Carson and Spencer Reed (5th year, libero/outside hitter, Prince George, BC).   Reed came into this match and had some key serves including his first ever service ace.

Source: Mark Janzen, Trinity Western Assistant Sports Information Director

LANGLEY, British Columbia – Trinity Western men’s volleyball setter Adam Schriemer (Winnipeg) got the best of his older brother, Matthew, in their first ever on-court clash as the No. 2 Spartans knocked off Winnipeg 3-1 (28-26, 18-25, 25-13, 25-15) Friday at the Langley Events Centre.

The first-year Schriemer guided TWU’s offence with 43 assists and helped three different Spartans to double-digit kill totals en route to the four-set win. Winnipeg’s Schriemer did his part to keep the Wesmen in the match as he collected 18 kills and had nine digs, but his efforts weren’t quite enough on a night when TWU hit .308 compared to Winnipeg’s .173.

While the younger Schriemer got the win, Spartans coach Ben Josephson saw the battle between the two as a saw-off.

“The first two sets went to Matt and the second two sets went to Adam,” Josephson said. “The tiebreaker is tomorrow.”

After two strong sets from the Wesmen that saw TWU escape with a comeback win in the first and Winnipeg win by seven in the second, the Spartans took over in the next two sets, winning decisively in both, to improve to 19-2 on the season.

The loss drops Winnipeg to 9-12 on the season and puts their playoff hopes in peril. The Wesmen will need a win and a lot of help to get into the post-season. The Spartans clinched first place in Canada West last week and will host the Final Four in two weeks.

The Spartans offence was led by Brad Kufske (Abbotsford, B.C.), who had 16 kills, while Ryan Sclater (Port Coquitlam, B.C.) added 14 kills and seven blocks and Nick Del Bianco (Surrey, B.C.) had 13 kills. Both middles Lucas Van Berkel (Edmonton), with seven kills and nine blocks, and Branden Schmidt (De Winton, Alta.), with five kills and two blocks, didn’t commit a single attack error.

Van Berkel’s nine blocks improves his career total to 402. He is now 12 blocks shy of the Canada West career regular season record, which is held by Joseph Brooks, formerly of the Manitoba Bisons.

After Winnipeg’s Schriemer, it was Tom Douglas-Powell with 11 kills for the Wesmen while Casey Schouten had seven kills. Matthew Dueck had a team-high five blocks.

“We had a good finish but a poor start,” Josephson said. “We just didn’t do our jobs at the start. We had assignment mistakes consistently in the first set and those things turned into errors, instead of continues. Later in the match, they turned into continues, which let us set up the block. I don’t know why those things happened, but they can’t happen. We should have lost the first two sets, but we just stole enough points late in the first set to get that one.”

The Spartans opened the first set with an emotional charge and broke open a quick 6-1 lead. But with Winnipeg setter Michael Bommersbach coming onto the floor to replace Josh McKay, who left to repair a cut, the Wesmen responded with an 8-2 run to grab a 9-8 lead. From there, Winnipeg kept rolling, opening up as much as a seven-point advantage, at 21-14 and then again at 23-16. But the Spartans didn’t lay down. TWU went on an 8-1 run to tie the set 24-24. After Sclater earned a pair of critical kills, the Spartans got a chance at set point at 27-26 and a Del Bianco kill capped the rally.

The second set was all Wesmen from start to finish. Winnipeg opened an 8-1 lead and never trailed. The Spartans got within four points at 13-9, but the visitors weren’t about to let this lead get away. The Wesmen kept rolling and with a block from Stubler and McKay took the set 25-18.

Winnipeg’s Schriemer, who had seven kills in the first set, added six more in the second to lead all players with 13 through two sets.

The third was nearly the exact opposite as the second. TWU took a 7-1 lead and never saw its advantage threated. The closest Winnipeg got was four points after a Schriemer ace at 13-9, but the Spartans hit .538 in the set and weren’t going to be stopped. Winnipeg hit .000 as a team and the Spartans took the set 25-13 after an emphatic kill from Schmidt.

The Spartans took a 4-0 lead in the fourth set and that seemed to bury Winnipeg. The Spartans hit .345 as a team and never trailed as they earned a 10-point win. Kufske led TWU with four kills and TWU won the set after a Wesmen attack error.

The teams will play the rematch Saturday at 7 p.m.

Game Notes: TWU had a 12-6.5 edge in blocks…the Spartans had seven aces while Winnipeg had five.