Bison briefs

Basketball

The men’s basketball team completed a three-game, three-day road trip this past weekend that saw the Bisons play in exhibition games from Oct. 7-9 against Brock, McMaster and Guelph.

Manitoba won their first game against Brock 85-74 and followed that performance with a 105-102 victory over McMaster the following day. Manitoba forward Richard Reimer led all Bisons with 19 total points in their first game, while forward Sean Maxwell tallied 25 in Friday’s game.

The Bisons dropped their final game of the three-day trip to Guelph by a score of 85-58.

The women’s team also completed a three-game road trip over the weekend, competing in the University of Winnipeg BOB FM non-conference tournament. The Bisons lost in their opening game against Brandon 65-64 but rebounded for two straight wins against Winnipeg, 69-60, and Lakehead, 62-59.

In the three games played, Manitoba guard Kayla Klassen led the team in scoring, accumulating 47 total points.

Football

Last week Bison athlete Thomas Hall was named one of the recipients of the CIS Desjardins Top Eight Academic All-Canadian honour.

Each year CIS student-athletes are recognized as Academic All-Canadians if they have maintained a grade point average of at least 80 per cent while competing for one of their university’s varsity teams. Of these All-Canadians, one female and one male student-athlete from each of the four CIS regional associations are selected for the CIS Desjardins Top Eight honour.

Hockey

The women’s hockey team opened their season with a bang this past weekend, defeating the University of Alberta Pandas 2-0 in the first of their back-to-back two-game series.

Manitoba defenceman Brigette Lacquette scored the first goal of the Bisons early season on a first period power play that put the home team up 1-0. Still in the first, Bisons forward Nellie Minshull wristed a shot top shelf on Alberta goaltender Kenesa Shwetz to extend Manitoba’s lead to 2-0.

After the first period, the Bisons didn’t need much more offence as goalie Tara Lacquette, with help from a stingy Manitoba defence, was able to turn away all of Alberta’s chances, recording her first shutout as a member of the Bisons in the process.

The following day the Pandas were able to turn the tables on the Bisons, splitting the back-to-back series with a 2-0 victory over the Brown and Gold. Manitoba outshot Alberta by a margin of 28-13 in their second game but were unable to solve Pandas goalie Michala Jeffries in the 60 minutes of regulation.

“I think we did a great job clogging up the scoring area, we controlled the whole game,” said Bisons head coach, Jon Rempel. “I give Alberta full marks, they played a great away game.”

Volleyball

The men’s volleyball team took home some hardware this past weekend, winning the 2010 Cougar Invitational in convincing fashion.

The six-team, non-conference tournament pitted Manitoba against the likes of Saskatchewan, Regina, Medicine Hat, Winnipeg and Grant McEwan over the span of three days. The Bisons steamrolled their way through the competition, dropping only three total sets and going undefeated in five matches to win the non-conference tournament.