Werbiski powers Winnipeg past Brandon

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This article was published 08/02/2025 (301 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Ella Werbiski returned to the Healthy Living Centre with a new yet familiar role.

Instead of rolling balls to the Brandon University Bobcats as a game-day volunteer, she hammered them at them from the other side of the net. The Brandonite piled up 11 kills with just two errors to lead the Winnipeg Wesmen to a 3-1 (25-15, 25-18, 22-25, 25-21) victory in their Canada West women’s volleyball match on Friday.

“Listening to O Canada is such a surreal experience when you’re standing there looking at the crowd so this was really, really fun,” Werbiski said.

“I grew up around Bobcat volleyball so being back in the gym playing instead of ball rolling, it’s a really cool experience.”

The six-foot-one right side wasn’t the only Westman product to have a big day for Winnipeg. Middle blocker Emily Lavallee of Russell racked up an astonishing 11 kills on 16 attempts without an error, hitting a match-high .688.

The win nudged the Wesmen (7-10) a step closer to clinching a playoff spot while the Bobcats (2-15) are playing for pride.

Brandon certainly showed a lot of it in its penultimate home match of the season.

The Bobcats led 5-1 thanks to Jaya Dzikowicz making a quick four hitting errors, but they quickly retook the lead when Werbiski served a pair of aces on a seven-point run including back-to-back kills by Lavallee.

The teams traded long runs to put Winnipeg up 14-9, then after Brandon cut it to 15-13, the visitors were nearly error-free while the Bobcats finished the set with a negative hitting percentage, crumbling on a 10-2 run to concede the first set.

Dzikowicz redeemed herself in the second set with three aces on an early run of six to lead 10-4.

It was 14-5 before Grace Gallacher stepped in and served five in a row to help BU narrow the gap.

The scoring swings continued right to the end, with the Wesmen taking the last run of five to close it out after BU made it 20-18.

Once again, Werbiski and Lavallee were ultra-efficient, combining for six kills without a mistake to put U of W up 2-0.

Gallacher went in earlier in the third and delivered an even bigger serving run of seven to pull ahead 11-8.

“As a serving sub, you can’t go in and just put the ball in the court, you’re there to make a difference so just playing no fear and trusting in yourself that you can do it,” Gallacher said.

“It’s definitely nerve-racking coming in.

“Once you get in the groove or get an ace, it feels good and the pressure lets off. Just the support from the teammates, especially coming in and they have full confidence in you … makes it so much better.”

Gallacher stayed in the back row and added six digs on the night, making a big impact on BU’s best set of the night.

Brandon made two errors early but hit nearly flawlessly afterwards, without anyone scoring twice in a row but four different Bobcats finding the court en route to a 17-10 advantage.

Avery Burgar made three mistakes in a row to let Winnipeg pull within two, then both teams shot themselves in the foot an equal amount before Thomson flipped the ball over on second contact for a sneaky set-winning kill.

U of W snapped back with its best set of the night, piling up 13 kills and just two errors.

BU tied it 20-20 but Winnipeg was the better team in crunch time once more and took all three critical points by avoiding a fifth set.

“We’ve been working on a lot of little things at practice and were really able to put it all together,” Werbiski said. “We’ve been working on going hard in the last few points of the set and we were able to do that in the fourth, which was what made us successful.”

Burgar led all hitters with 14 kills and nine errors.

Winnipeg had 47 kills and 19 errors while Brandon recorded 41 and 25.

The teams meet again today at 6:45 p.m., following the Senior Night ceremony for captain Burgar, along with men’s graduating players Riley Grusing, Michael Flor and Philipp Lauter.

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com.

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