Brianne Stott chases senior weekend split against TRU

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This article was published 10/02/2024 (586 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brianne Stott could barely walk at the beginning of this week.

She suffered a left ankle injury in practice on Monday, leaving on crutches and putting her status for her final home weekend of Canada West volleyball in doubt.

In doubt to anyone but her, that is. The five-foot-four libero did everything she could to compete on Friday, then recorded seven digs in a 3-1 (25-17, 25-18, 21-25, 25-20) loss to the Thompson Rivers WolfPack at the Healthy Living Centre.

“Honestly, the adrenalin kicked in and it just felt fine. Didn’t notice it at all,” Stott said.

“It’s awesome, obviously this is what I was pushing for the whole week, getting to play both nights. It’s awesome I was able to do that and get back at it for (today).”

It makes sense the former Vincent Massey Viking would fight through the pain to play when you look at her career. She joined the Bobcats in 2019 as a graduating all-star on a strong high school team, but had to redshirt her rookie year and then miss 2020-21 due to COVID-19.

When 2021-22 rolled around, she was still behind one of the conference’s best liberos, Caitlin Le, on the depth chart.

It took a knee injury which cut Le’s career short in January for Stott to hit the floor, but the work she put in during those years made the transition as seamless as possible.

“Bri had to be pretty resilient and hard working in her career here,” said Bobcats interim head coach Kailan Robinson, who was an assistant coach that year.

“To work so hard behind Caitlin and to look up to Caitlin has helped her be so good.

“Now it’s her turn, she knows we need her and she works so hard to be her best, constantly looking for extra reps, always asking what she needs to do to be better, so I love seeing that growth in her.”

Stott posted a career-high 18 digs in a five-set win facing Winnipeg that season, yet the impressive effort was somehow overshadowed — something defensive specialists are more than used to. If anyone was going to steal the spotlight, however, Stott couldn’t have been happier with who that was.

Her best friend, Camryn Hildebrand, who had a similar experience of waiting for her shot, came off the bench for a five-kill, error-free night including the match-winning block.

“We talked about it lots,” Stott said of waiting for their shot together. “At the beginning, it was really hard because you go from playing all the time, you’re one of the best people to now you’re just one of the backup people. We talked through it and knew that we would get there one day.

“We push each other, help each other stay accountable and we’ve been able to help each other get better over the years.

“This is our 11th year together. (Senior Night) is definitely going to be sad, but good.”

Stott was the full-time starter last season, playing 20 matches and picking up 202 digs before a wrist injury cost her the last two weeks.

It was a tough year for the Bobcats, who went 0-24 after a handful of players left with eligibility remaining. Another half-dozen moved on following the winless season, either to other programs or quitting altogether.

Stott stuck it out after coach Lee Carter was placed on leave nearly a year ago — a situation BU has not provided updates on in response to repeated requests — and is glad she did.

“Having Kailan as a coach was a huge confidence boost,” Stott said. “I think previously maybe my confidence was put down a little bit and she was just able to bring that back out of me and I was able to be my best this year.”

Statistically, her numbers are down with just 159 digs entering this weekend, but factoring in three matches Stott took a backseat to rookie Brooklyn Pratt and the two splitting libero duties for the second semester, still being top-20 in Canada West is remarkable.

Stott has played points while BU serves and Pratt plays the passing points. When you break it down, since the Bobcats don’t serve nearly as many points as their opponents and a third of their serves are by middle blockers, meaning the libero is typically on the bench, Stott is playing less than 30 per cent of points while most liberos play closer to 80 per cent.

“Obviously, you want to be out there as much as you can but you also have to put the team first so if that’s what we need to do, I’m happy to be out there as much as I can be,” Stott said, adding Pratt, her former high school teammate has been great to work with.

“We’re there to help each other out. She pushes me every day, I push her every day. If something’s not going right in a game, she can step up or I can step up so it’s nice to be able to have that.”

TRU TOO MUCH FOR BU

The WolfPack came out strong as Winnipegger Brooklyn Olfert racked up six kills to match the entire BU lineup in the first set.

Brandon hit .130 but TRU posted 14 kills for .330, plus three aces in a dominant opening frame.

The second set was similar, though BU hit the ball well and led 16-14 before a massive WolfPack push. Import right side Ema Palkovicova ripped four kills while her team served three more aces and closed the set on an 11-2 run.

The Bobcats hung around in the third and capped a long rally with a Laura Ramsey roll shot down the line to lead 18-17.

BU shut the TRU attackers down but gave up two dumps by setter Libby Meldrum and trailed 21-20 before Hildebrand stepped back to the service line and delivered a pair of aces on a five-point run to close the set and extend the match.

The Bobcats went down 12-8 in the fourth and clawed back to a 16-15 deficit on a good three-point run including a Kallie Ball solo block. But they gave it right back on a back-breaking four-point skid and couldn’t recover.

It took four match points for TRU to end it, but it had three to spare when BU’s last gasp ran out of air.

Olfert had a match-high 18 kills and seven errors for the WolfPack, who hit .204 while limiting Brandon to .162. Avery Burgar paced the Bobcats with 11 kills and four errors.

“I think we just looked like we gave up at the end a little bit,” Stott said.

“We just made a couple more errors than them, they scored a bit better than us so if we can change a couple of things for (today) we can definitely get a win.”

Stott posted seven digs while Hildebrand had eight kills and three blocks and Ball added a kill, two digs and two blocks.

They get one more chance to do it on home court before their Senior Night presentation, then the season finale at UBC next weekend.

“I’m grateful for everything. It helps you work through challenges you wouldn’t normally have to think about and prepares you for life, this experience,” Stott said.

“It was something I always wanted to do as a little girl so to be able to come in and be a Bobcat was something I’ll never forget and something I’ll cherish forever.”

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