The Winnipeg Wesmen survived and advanced Monday and will play for another Wesmen Classic championship.

The Wesmen women's volleyball team rallied from down 2-1 in sets and came away with a 3-2 (26-24, 19-25, 22-25, 25-20, 20-18) victory over the Lakehead Thunderwolves in a semifinal at the 58th annual Classic at the Duckworth Centre.

The result puts the Wesmen into Tuesday's championship final against the Ottawa Gee Gees, who swept the Manitoba Bisons in Monday's other semifinal. 

It also gives the Wesmen a chance to defend their 2019 Classic title — the last time women's volleyball was featured in the annual holiday tournament. 

To get to the final was looking far from a certainty after three sets with the Thunderwolves providing a healthy dose of defence and a .552 attacking in the second set alone. And LU hung around in the fourth, as well, before a run of seven-out-of-nine points for Winnipeg gave the Wesmen a 23-16 edge. 

In the fifth, Winnipeg faced an 11-9 deficit, but managed back-to-back points to tie it and the teams played side-out volleyball up to 18. From there, Brooke Duncalfe got a kill to get the Wesmen to match point, and a back-row setter violation gave the Wesmen the memorable victory. 

Duncalfe had 23 kills to lead the Wesmen, while hitting .422 with just four errors on 45 swings. Ella Werbiski and Grace Vallis both had 13 kills, with Vallis hitting .524. Emily Lavallee added 11 kills, and setter Naomi Unger provided a career-high 56 assists as well as 10 digs and two aces. 

Taylor Cangemi had a match-high 16 digs. 

Lakehead's left sides were a problem throughout the night, with Lauryn Langley putting down 33 kills and former Wesmen Alysha Goundrey notching 19 with 14 digs.