NAME: Wesmen
UNIVERSITY: Winnipeg
CATEGORY: Team
SPORT: Women’s Volleyball
HIGHLIGHTS:
Won six consecutive CIAU championships from 1983 to 1988
Won 123 consecutive matches from January 1987 to January 1989
Perfect 58-0 overall record in 1987-88 season
BIOGRAPHY:
The Winnipeg Wesmen women’s volleyball team won every CIAU title from 1983 to 1988, punctuating the feat with one of the greatest winning steaks in university sports history.
Between January 9, 1987 and January 15, 1989, the Wesmen were victorious in 123 straight contests, a run that included triumphs over Japan university champs Tuskuba, the Canadian national team, the Minnesota Monarchs professional team, and the eventual 1988 NCAA champion Texas Longhorns.
Over Winnipeg’s six-year reign, a Wesmen student-athlete was named CIAU Women's Volleyball Player of the Year each season: Jamie Hancharyk (1983 and 1984), Ruth Klassen (1985), Ruth Burchuk (1986), and Brenda Boroski (1987 and 1988). Meanwhile, the CIAU championship MVP went to Hancharyk in 1984, Klassen in 1985, Boroski in 1986 and 1987, and the U of W’s Monica Leug in 1988.
During the 1987-88 campaign, Winnipeg had a perfect 58-0 overall mark, establishing a Canadian university volleyball record. Coached by Mike Burchuk, the Wesmen were ranked No. 1 in the CIAU every week that season. Throughout the dynasty, the Wesmen had a number of team members who would go on to play for Canada's national junior or senior teams in: Boroski, Leug, Wanda Guenette, Joanne Onishko, Paulette Jerrard, Sheila Picklyk, Ruth Klassen, Ardith Lernout Parker, Bernice Bowley, Diane Scott, Leesa Fast, Carrie Chernomaz Patrick, April Stephenson, and Suzi Smith.
The Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame welcomed the 1987-88 Wesmen women’s volleyball team as part of its 2001 induction class.