Pratt finds groove as BU falls to UFV

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This article was published 04/12/2023 (708 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It took a special level of determination for Brooklyn Pratt to get where she is today.

If you told her the day she signed with the Brandon University Bobcats it’d be more than three years before her first Canada West women’s volleyball start, who knows how the former Vincent Massey Viking would have responded.

But she paid her dues as a redshirt in 2021-22, then spent the following year rehabbing a pre-season ACL tear.

Pratt had a team-high seven digs as Brandon (0-12) lost 3-0 (25-13, 25-15, 25-23) to the Fraser Valley Cascades (9-3) at the Healthy Living Centre on Saturday.

“It’s been really fun finally getting out there, especially being hurt last year,” Pratt said after her third career start.

“Just nice to know my hard work to get back to where I was has paid off. It’s a bit of a dream starting that first game. It’s a good feeling to know I’m nice and healthy and know I can still play at this level.”

Pratt’s recovery felt mundane at times and frustrating at others. She had an infection in one of the incisions, which set her back a few weeks.

Then, the process featured many of the same slow, controlled exercises with increased load and repetitions over time, however, sometimes an exercise is routine one day and impossible the next.

“It’d be too sore one week to keep going so I had to stay back and not progress as fast as I’d like,” Pratt said.

“Overall, it went good.”

Pratt was a standout libero for the Vikings, helping them reach the provincial AAAA final in 2019.

She spent a few years at BU practising with some big hitters like Keely Anderson, who just transferred to Saskatchewan but has realized elite teams like the nationally ranked Cascades pack an offensive punch Brandon will only see in matches.

“They’re big girls and they have a heavy swing so it’s a whole new ball game sometimes adjusting to that,” Pratt said.

“Realizing I have to stay for those hard cross shots and take a step in if that means taking a shot off my chest, I just gotta take it off my chest.”

The Bobcats kept all three sets close past the halfway point on Friday, but the Cascades broke Saturday’s first one open well before that.

They led 12-9 and pulled away with five aces to go with 16 kills and just four hitting errors.

Brandon hit the ball well — seven kills and three errors for a .173 percentage — but simply not often enough to compete.

It was more of the same in the second set. Reigning player of the year Gabrielle Attieh added six more kills after six in the opener, and her team hit .650 with 14 kills and one error.

The third set was tied 11-11 when Carly Thomson went back to the service line and saved the match. She started a five-point run on an unlikely dig that went over and scored.

Thomson kept BU ahead for a while, feeding middle blocker Nerissa Dyer for a few key points, but UFV finally earned a four-point run to tie it 20-20.

Attieh and the Cascades took over with an offensive burst to close out the match. She finished with a match-high 17 kills as her team hit .378 while Brandon hit .136.

Avery Burgar had 10 kills and just two errors for BU one night after a negative-efficiency performance.

“It’s awesome. I’m super proud of her to go up against these huge blocks and still be crafty and find those shots, still swing hard and high, super impressive to see what she can do with a big block like that,” Pratt said.

“We’re finding our energy, finding our groove, especially these past few games. We have a good, positive energy so keep rolling with that.”

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