WINNIPEG - The Manitoba Bisons battled back to earn the weekend split thanks to Saturday's 3-2 (26-24, 14-25, 20-25, 25-20, 16-14) over the Bobcats.

The Bobcats swept Friday but Saturday saw both teams settle in for the long haul before the Bisons fought off a match point and rattled off two points to take the match.

Two big blocks from Matthew Campbell and a powerful cross-court strike from Eric Ogaranko were part of a 7-4 run to put the Bisons on the front foot the begin the match. Despite a strong start from the hosts, Manitoba and Brandon found themselves in 15-15 deadlock midway through the first and again later in the set at 21-21. Campbell put the Bisons ahead at 22-21 following an electric rally between the two sides as they continued to go point-for-point the rest of the set. Campbell's second kill put his Manitoba side on set point before a huge left side block from Ben Carleton gave the Bisons the first set, 26-24.
 
A few miscues from the Manitoba side of the court put their opposition on a 6-1 run to start the second set and later saw their deficit expand to 15-7. The Bobcats Tom Friesen found his from in the second; posting his first four kills of the game through his teams first 15 points.  Led by Friesen, the Brandon offence continued to fire as they claimed the second set 25-14, levelling the match at one set apiece.
 
Another strong start from the Bobcats put them out in front 10-3 to start the third set. Despite going down by a large margin early, the Bisons battled all the way back to within one of Brandon at 17-16 with Carleton leading the way, tallying four kills. With the Bobcats on set point following a Philipp Lauter cross-court strike, the visitors put the set away by a final score of 25-20.
 
Down 2-1 in sets, the Bisons looked to force a fifth and deciding set. Carleton put down two kills along with another from Ogaranko to keep Manitoba on pace with the Bobcats at 4-4 to start the fourth. The Bisons took their first lead of the set on Ogaranko's 11^th kill of the game and combined with a Bobcat net violation, the Herd found themselves up 12-10. From there, the hosts never looked back in the set as they took the fourth 25-20 with Carleton and Ogaranko leading the attack.
 
Carleton put down his second service ace of the match, giving Manitoba the early 4-1 advantage in the deciding set. Brandon responded with a 4-1 run of their own to cut the Bison lead back to one at 6-5. Later with the teams tied at 9-9, Carleton saw his attack get blocked, giving Brandon their first lead of the fifth at 10-9. The teams continued to trade points from their on out before a massive block from Ogaranko with the teams tied at 14 set up match point for Manitoba. On the following point, Oraganko sealed the win for his home side with his 14^th kill of the match.

Manitoba captain Jack Mandryk climbed into the conference record books, posting 35 assists in the game putting him at 2157 in his career and into the top-20 all time in Canada West.
 
The Bobcats return to the friendly confines of the Healthy Living Centre next weekend for a weekend set against the MacEwan Griffins.

It will be the first home matches since home-opening weekend back in October.