Winnipeg Wesmen win Canada West Volleyball Championship
Posted March 9, 2025 3:57 pm.
Last Updated March 9, 2025 6:36 pm.
The Winnipeg Wesmen men’s volleyball team took down Alberta 3 sets to none on Saturday night, to win their first ever Canada West Championship in program history, in front of a packed crowd at the Duckworth centre.
“I can’t even put it into words yet, maybe tomorrow I’ll be able too, but you know what for right now we’re going to celebrate it, and it feels great,” said Paxton Koop, team caption. “Great to do this for my team, we deserve it, the coach deserves it. From 1-19 on the roster we all deserve this one, so it feels great.”
“Amazing, this is like 3 years in the making here, we’ve been tried and tested with this group, this feels amazing to win,” said Isaiah Olfert, Canada West all-star.
“I don’t have any words, I’m speechless,” said Chris Voth, head coach. “The guys are amazing, they’ve been amazing all year, and I couldn’t have imagined them playing any better in a moment like this.”
The Wesmen were an impressive 17-3 in the regular season, earning a chance to host the final four and finals for the first time ever, and a sellout crowd of rabid hometown fans gave the team the push they needed in a dominant performance.
“I’ve never seen this many people in the Duckworth before, so this was pretty cool,” said Olfert.
“It just does way more than you can even imagine for us as a team, it just pushed us over a great squad like Alberta today so, yeah its amazing, I cant even put into words how much that helped us tonight,” said Koop.
The magical run is far from over. By taking gold in Canada west, the Wesmen also qualified for nationals, an 8-team tournament from March 21st-23rd in Brandon to decide a national champion. And while the team wants to enjoy this moment, they know there’s plenty of work left.
“We work on something every match, and every match they go and execute,” said Voth. “So, they’ll be things we need to improve on, and every team in nationals is going to be good, so its going to be a dog fight.”
“Yeah, you know what tomorrow a little off day, we’ll reset, celebrate a little bit,” said Koop. “Then Monday we’re back on the grind, gotta go back to school too, so that will keep us grounded. But yeah you know what we’re looking forward to nationals as well, going to Brandon, not the most glamourous location but hopefully we’ll have a glamourous finish there.”
