BRANDON SWEEPS NO. 1 WINNIPEG

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This article was published 21/03/2025 (209 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As often as you’ll hear the Brandon University Bobcats say it’s just another match, Friday’s wasn’t.

It was the biggest one every single one of their lives and they treated it as such. You could see it in their heightened celebrations and unbridled youthful joy in the little moments, and they let it all out in the big one.

Philipp Lauter pounded the upset-sealing kill, sweeping the country’s No. 1-ranked University of Winnipeg Wesmen 3-0 (25-19, 25-19, 25-22) in the U Sports men’s volleyball championship quarterfinals.

While Lauter has played in front of more than 4,000 fans in the United States, it didn’t compare to the 1,800 strong at the Healthy Living Centre.

“This is way better. This is our gym, this is our fans, it’s a packed house, this is what you want to play for. It’s as good as it gets,” Lauter said, adding the crowd made a massive impact.

“There’s no way you could ever doubt anything with that amount of fans behind you.”

For the Wesmen, it’s the bitter end to the sweetest run since their last national title in 2007. The Canada West conference champions were simply outplayed in every facet of the game in a hostile environment.

“They played unbelievable,” said Winnipeg’s Chris Voth, the U Sports coach of the year.

“That’s really great to see. Kudos to them. They did really well, everything was rolling for them and they have a lot of good players and they played well.

“We tried a few things and it didn’t work and they just kept rolling. They didn’t give us a lot of breathing room and that’s all it was.”

After the match, some of the crowd broke out in a quick “Happy Birthday” to BU head coach Grant Wilson, who couldn’t think of a better birthday present in his 56 years.

“It’s gotta be pretty close to the top of the mountain. That was a pretty special night for the whole team but certainly today, it was a nice surprise,” Wilson said.

“That was as good as we’ve played, perhaps, all season.”

The first set was tied 8-8 before the first giant run.

Tom Friesen ignited it for the Bobcats, serving a pair of aces — one due to Winnipeg’s back row players standing in the wrong positions — on a six-point run to lead 14-8.

Brandon extended the lead to 18-11 on a massive Philipp Latuer block after Voth subbed backup setter Alex Krykewich in and using his second timeout.

However, the Bobcats piled up five errors of four different kinds on Olfert’s serving run to let the Wesmen pull within two.

Lauter bailed BU out with a fortunate shot off hands and out of play, then Pauls aced Rose to give Brandon breathing room.

The Bobcats regained control on a long rally of off-speed shots before setter JJ Love faked out the entire gymnasium, pretending to hit a right side ball before dishing to Lauter for a huge cross-court kill.

Friesen solo blocked Luke Lodewyks to make it 23-16, then picked up two kills to send Brandon into the second set up 1-0.

Love pulled the same manoeuvre to draw the block and open Lauter up for another big kill in the middle early in the second set, then Lauter added a huge block on rookie of the year Easton Dick during a four-point run to lead 5-3.

Lodewyks hit into another Friesen block to go down 8-5 but got it back with an ace on the three-point run to tie it for Winnipeg.

Brandon extended a few rallies and Love found Riley Grusing and Lauter to go back up three, then made a perfect dish to Friesen in the back row behind Lauter, who drew the block and gave the Friesen a wide-open net to blast it over.

After Voth’s timeout, Lauter stuffed Olfert twice in a row to lead 16-11 before the first-team all-Canadian returned to the service line.

This time, he erred right away.

Brandon went right back to blocking just about everything. Love and Lauter rejected Rose twice in a row for a 19-12 advantage.

Once again, the Bobcats needed the cushion. Rose flipped to the right side as Voth reversed his offence by putting Traa in position No. 4 and he found his six-foot-nine attacker for two kills, followed by Love and Grusing unforced errors to cut it to 20-17.

Winnipeg drew within two but Rose erred twice more, then Friesen caught the back line for an ace on set point to make it 2-0.

“We certainly knew they were capable of those types of runs. They have some tremendous service pressure,” Wilson said.

“I thought our receivers did a really good job of shaking things off and just moving on to the next point. Sure, they went on a couple of runs but we at least minimized the damage.”

They moved Rose to the right side and swapped Lodewyks for left side Aiden Hruska for the third set, also going back to Krykewich.

They made a pair of errors to go down in the third, then Lauter and Love each added another block to extend their lead to 9-5.

Winnipeg closed the gap but each time Brandon led by just one, it sided out quickly, usually by passing perfectly and letting Lauter lash at it.

Up 16-14, Pauls made a crazy dig to set up a Friesen kill and Voth’s last timeout.

Friesen made it 20-16 on a brilliant deep roll shot over Paxton Koop’s block, then after his team drew within two, Koop served into the net.

Brandon did enough to stay ahead before backup setter Kale Fisher connected with Lauter to end a long rally with his eighth kill of the night, to go with just one error on nine attempts.

“We know Philly’s always going to do it so it’s great to see it,” Grusing said. “He’s been a battery pack out there when he gets going, he brings the energy so love to have him going.”

Grusing posted a team-high 10 kills in the match he redshirted two years to be eligible for. The Bragg Creek, Alta., product, who joined the Bobcats in 2021, said it was worth the wait.

“We’ve been waiting for it but so have a lot of people,” Grusing said.

“Everyone’s been saying this opportunity is once in a lifetime, especially for the city of Brandon so it’s awesome to be able to come out and perform and show that for the crowd that was there.”

Olfert had match-highs of 11 kills and 12 points.

The Wesmen finished with 29 kills and 22 errors, hitting .080 while the Bobcats had 31 and 12 for .247. Brandon also recorded 10 blocks to Winnipeg’s three.

“Brandon played a perfect game and I think that’s what it takes to beat our team,” Krykewich said. “That’s why we were successful all year. We played really clean and not a lot of teams can match our energy and skill level and they did that.

“They served great, they blocked great and they attacked great. They took a lot of gambles and the gambles paid off.”

The Bobcats face the Saskatchewan Huskies in the semifinals today at 6 p.m., after they knocked off the Ontario champion Queen’s Gaels.

No. 2 Sherbrooke meets the third-seed Alberta in the second semifinal at 8 o’clock. BU has now reached the medal round in all five of its national appearances.

It’s still a long road to the gold medal that’s eluded them for their entire 20-year U Sports history, you won’t find an ounce of doubt within the group.

“We’ve believed all year,” Grusing said. “We’ve been preaching it day in and day out, every practice, believe, believe.”

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