Brunet shines in first start; BU beats UFV

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This article was published 25/01/2025 (237 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Riley Brunet stopped and looked around the Healthy Living Centre before his first-career start. Naturally, it brought waves of emotion.

It’s been more than four years since the Fort McMurray, Alta., product signed with the Brandon University Bobcats, and he’s paid his dues with a long list of middle blockers ahead of him.

On Friday, he got his shot and made the most of it, leading all attackers with a .667 hitting percentage as the Bobcats beat the Fraser Valley Cascades 3-1 (21-25, 25-16, 29-27, 25-22).

“It feels good. I kind of took a moment to appreciate it before the game, especially in an amazing community like this with packed stands, this is a mock trial for nationals,” Brunet said after playing with fans surrounding three sides of the court.

“Playing in an environment like this, it feels great.”

He thought he might start this Canada West men’s volleyball season in the rotation but found himself on the bench for one more semester behind Chris Bryant.

But coach Grant Wilson shook things up, moving him and Brandonite Ryden Hargreaves in and starting Australian Sam Chen at libero after a disappointing trip to Mount Royal two weeks ago.

The moves worked. Hargreaves was solid with nine kills, three errors and three aces while Chen went without a receiving error.

Brunet posted six kills on nine attempts and tacked on three blocks to get Brandon (5-8) back on track and within one win of the Cascades (6-9) for eighth place.

“It feels great. It’s amazing to go out there and play the game I did today,” Brunet said.

“It’s really easy when you have teammates like that. First start of the year, it’s nerve-racking. Especially to have the confidence and the trust behind my teammates, it makes my job so much easier.”

The match almost took a huge turn less than halfway through the first set.

Setter JJ Love, who’s already playing through minor ankle and knee injuries, banged heads with Liam Pauls diving for a ball, trailing 12-11.

BU’s staff cleaned up his nosebleed and sent him back out without missing a point.

It stayed close until Riley Grusing nearly tied it 20-20 on a roll shot, but play continued following the UFV pancake attempt and the Cascades took the crucial two-point lead. It became three when Grusing hit his next shot into the net, and that was all the visitors needed to take a 1-0 edge.

UFV had 12 kills, error-free while BU recorded three hitting errors and missed seven serves.

Brandon got back into it in the second set with service pressure, breaking the Fraser Valley passers with a pair of aces by Philipp Lauter and Pauls to lead 11-8.

The Cascades missed a handful of serves early to help the Bobcats go up 15-10.

Hargreaves added another ace and pair of kills, including a thundering line shot to quickly tie the match 1-1.

The Brandonite started in place of Tom Friesen, who’s still dealing with a knee injury that will most likely linger all season.

BU started the third set exactly how Wilson said it needed to play this weekend — owning the first touch. A perfect pass set up a Lauter middle kill, then Lauter served the Cascades into a world of hurt to lead 4-0.

The teams mostly traded points and two-point runs, but UFV rattled off three in a row to tie it 15-15.

However, that first touch started slipping away and the Cascades capitalized as Jonas Van Huizen hammered home two kills on a three-point run to lead 19-17.

Pauls turned it around with back-to-back aces on a clutch three-point run to go back up 21-20, and the teams kept trading points into overtime.

The Bobcats missed a few serves on set point but Love aced libero Jackson Huang to take a 2-1 lead.

Considering Brandon lost all three sets by two last time it played, that was big.

“Nerves were firing on all cylinders. It was good, it was definitely what we needed,” Brunet said.

Brandon took the lead 17-15 in the fourth on a huge Hargreaves block.

Love aced Huang again to go up three, then Grusing banged home his team-high 16th kill to make it 22-18.

Jonas Van Huizen made the Bobcats sweat and Wilson burn his timeouts with two more kills to make it 23-22, but Roan McCarthy whacked his next serve long and Lauter put it away one point later after Grusing put UFV out of system with a powerful spin serve.

“That’s a veteran guy and seeing your veterans step up to the challenge, it’s really good,” Brunet said.

“It motivates us younger guys to step up as well. Thanks to Riles, he helped a lot with our W.”

Jonas Van Huizen finished with a match-high 18 kills and four errors while Nimo Benne had 15 and four for UFV.

Hargreaves recorded nine kills, three errors and seven digs while Pauls went for eight kills, three errors, three aces and a match-high 10 digs.

Brandon hit .330 to Fraser Valley’s .308. The hosts posted 11 aces and 22 errors while the Cascades managed just three aces with 26 misses from the backline.

“We just took care of the small things,” Brunet said.

“Started getting our serves in, started taking care of the first ball.

“After that, it was just barbecue chicken,” he added, referencing a phrase Shaquille O’Neal coined for dominating an opponent.

The teams meet again today at 5 p.m.

PADDOCK RELISHES

HOMETOWN SENDOFF

Brandonite Max Paddock, who played for the Cascades the past two seasons after transferring from Nova Scotia’s Acadia University hockey team, joined his old team for the day and started, recording an assist before regular starting setter Silas Van Huizen subbed him off.

Paddock, who’s currently the goaltender coach for the Western Hockey League’s Regina Pats, is still a full-time student at UFV via remote learning, making him eligible to play one more match in his hometown.

“I mentioned to Bennett that I was probably going to be around … he was the one that brought up maybe playing,” Paddock said.

“It’s good to get some closure on it and come out and be with my teammates. Them allowing me to do this, I’m grateful for that.”

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com

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