Quietly, with no fanfare, the 1987-88 University of Winnipeg Wesmen women’s volleyball team put together an impressive 58-0 winning streak and won the final of six straight national championships.

A group of 12 women coached by Mike Burchuk, the Wesmen were an unassuming group of hard-working, focused individuals who gave their time and dedication for the truest of reasons - love of the game. So focused, no one in the Wesmen program was keeping count of the Wesmen’s winning ways. When a group of players and former U of W athletic director Aubrey Ferris recently began crunching some numbers, they were astounded at what surfaced. The 58-0 streak was part of an even more phenomenal accomplishment, an historic 123-match winning streak by the Wesmen women’s volleyball team spanning January 9, 1987 - January 15, 1989.

“If we’d known about it (the streak) back then, we all probably would have been so freaked out about it we never would have won as many as we did,” said Brenda (Boroski) Westwood, who played from 1983-88 and was the 1987 and 1988 CIAU player of the year. “We were good at handling pressure but that would have been unnecessary pressure. When we talk about it now, I’m proud of that whole group. The group that started it all in 1982, they were so confident and so good, they laid the framework of excellence and we followed in their footsteps.”

The team’s dominance in that 1987-88 season has not been duplicated in university women’s sport. The Wesmen were ranked Number 1 in the CIAU every week that season, beat Japan’s University national champion Tsukuba 3-1, beat Canada’s national team 3-2, beat the Minnesota Monarchs professional team 3-0 and beat the top NCAA Division I team Texas.

While Boroski was the CIAU player of the year and accomplished the rare feat of winning a fifth national gold medal, Ardith Lernout and Monica Leug were named all-Canadians. Five team members went on to play for Canada’s national junior or senior teams in Boroski, Leug, Joanne Onishko, Paulette Jerrard and Sheila Picklyk.

Named Team of the Year by the Manitoba Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association, many of these players still play together on a Wesmen alumnae squad and last year beat some of Canada’s best university teams to win the first ever Coast-to-Coast university women’s volleyball tournament held cooperatively by the Universities of Winnipeg and Manitoba.

The Wesmen team’s incredible team play and multitude of victories, which were not just over local Canadian sides but included top teams from across the globe, were not properly recognized or fully appreciated at the time of accomplishment because of the standard of excellence in place in coach Burchuk’s program for so many years.

A full 13 years after their electrifying performance during the 1987-88 season, their induction is deserving glory for such a modest group of women.

Team members included: Claire Anderson, Carrie (Chernonmaz) Patrick, Leesa Fast, Paulette (Jerrard) Gillert, Ardith Lernout-Parker, Monica Leug, Joanne Onishko, Sheila Picklyk, April Stephenson, Brenda (Boroski) Westwood, Head Coach-Mike Burchuk, Assistant Coach-Amy Mohr, Manager - Fran Taylor, Athletic Therapist - Ben Trunzo, Trainer/Student Therapist - Mike Okrainec.