Underdog Bobcats earn U Sports crown

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This article was published 23/03/2025 (378 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Grant Wilson raised his hands and a carnal scream towards the Healthy Living Centre rafters.

Not two seconds later, his Brandon University Bobcats coaching staff did the same to him amidst a moment 20 years in the making for their storied program.

Year in and year out, every weekend in the cutthroat Canada West men’s volleyball conference, they try to punch above their weight. One of the smallest schools in the country, they do it on the practice floor, in the film room and in the relentless, uphill battle that is recruiting to a bitter cold, small prairie city.

But on Sunday, they did it on the grandest stage they’ll ever grace. A group of often overlooked and usually undersized guys from Alberta to Australia and myriad cities and towns in between beat the brakes off of the most decorated program in the country.

The Bobcats downed the Alberta Golden Bears 3-1 (25-20, 22-25, 28-26, 25-17) for their first-ever U Sports men’s volleyball gold medal on home court.

“Unbelievable. I’m at a loss for words. It’s amazing,” Wilson shouted over the pandemonium on the Healthy Living Centre floor.

“Thankful for these guys who bought into what we’re doing, thankful to the crowd that pushed us through, it’s a tremendous experience.”

Golden Bears’ phenom Isaac Heslinga led all hitters with 25 kills and eight errors. He picked up twice as many kills as any Bobcat. While Alberta may have possessed the best player, who played like a man possessed, he was the only Bear to hit more than nine while BU setter JJ Love got four of his guys into double-digits with Liam Pauls going for a team-high 12.

Love had the Bears guessing all night. They couldn’t communicate, let alone think, over the roars from the crowd.

It wasn’t really six-on-six — more like 1,806 on six. And that mattered.

“We couldn’t have done any of this without the crowd,” Love said. “The crowd was awesome, best in the country. Just a surreal feeling and especially against a team like Alberta, they’re an unreal team. Isaac Heslinga’s the player of the year back to back, that’s no joke. He’s the man.

“They’ve got super athletic middles, they jump super high so I just tried when we passed good to keep spreading it around, have them guessing and try to get our hitters one-on-one and I think we did decent.”

While it ended magically, the match couldn’t have started much worse for Brandon.

Chris Bryant missed his first serve, then Pauls attacked long before Liam Espedido served an ace and forced BU out of system to set up a Trent Cherewaty kill.

It was 5-1 Alberta and coach Grant Wilson burned his first timeout, only to see Espedido ace Tom Friesen.

But the best time to go down is early.

Brandon fought back with strong service pressure, turning into one-on-one situations for Pauls and Philipp Lauter to score.

Pauls dropped an off-speed serve in for an ace to make it 7-6 Alberta but knocked his next one into the net.

Alberta stayed at least a point up for the next few but BU’s block defence came alive and rejected a handful of shots before Dylan Martens turned one down the line out of bounds to make it 10-10.

Riley Grusing and Lauter teamed up to block Martens and give BU its first lead at 12-11.

But twice the Bobcats failed to extend their lead by missing serves.

The Bears gave a few back before Bryant and JJ Love stuffed Heslinga twice in a row to go up 17-15.

After another timeout, Lauter forced an overbump and Love slammed it down, then Love blasted a tight ball off the block and out of play to go up 19-15 before Heslinga ended the run with a sharp cross-court kill.

Brandon caught a break when Espedido ran into Luke Weddell at the net, preventing his setter from playing the ball, and then Friesen took advantage with a blistering ace the following point to lead 22-18.

Alberta scored twice but Owen Harris lobbed an easy serve in and libero Sam Chen passed it perfectly, leading to a Grusing kill. Two points later, Lauter unloaded on a ball off the block and into the bleachers to win the set.

This was Friesen’s third match in three nights after he hardly played even a back-to-back while dealing with a nagging knee injury all season. But he said for whatever reason, it felt great all weekend.

“Part of it’s the adrenalin, part of it’s just the second half of the season I took a few more games to make sure I was perfect for right now,” Friesen said.

Love stuffed Espedido and Heslinga early in the second set but a few BU errors kept it 6-6.

Love made it 12-10 Brandon on a two-hand flush but the Bears replied with four straight on kills by all of Weddell’s front-row guys during his serving run.

Alberta led 17-15 when Friesen received a generously long blood timeout, followed by a big BU triple block on Martens.

Pauls scored on a high Love set from the back line to tie it 18-18 and encourage Davidiuk to take a breather.

It was still tied 20-20 when Weddell threw deception to the wind and fed Heslinga every ball.

The six-foot-seven superstar delivered with all four Alberta kills to bring up set point when Friesen hit it into Cherewaty’s block to tie the match 1-1.

Weddell and Espedido collided again early in the third set to put BU up 6-4, then Friesen turned a stingy defensive effort from his side into a kill off the block to make it 8-5.

The Bobcats stayed up a few, then Pauls served another roll-shot ace to get to 14-11. After a Bears timeout, the left side from Stonewall caught the tape and dropped it in for another.

Brandon stayed ahead at least two up to 17-14 but let a few points slip away as Heslinga stepped up again to score three of the next four points.

The Bobcats stayed ahead most of the way, grinding through long rallies before Lauter missed a serve and Heslinga scored from the back row to tie it 22-22.

The teams exchanged service errors at a ratio of two-to-one, bringing up set point Brandon.

Alberta kept it alive three times but BU pulled ahead each time.

Then, the turning point came.

Libero Michael Flor, Pauls and Lauter all touched the ball less than a metre from the floor to keep it alive, and Love stuffed Martens to pull ahead 2-1.

At this point, the Golden Bears had to be sick of the “Monster Block” audio clip that played after every BU block. But they had to keep hearing it.

Love and Lauter blocked Heslinga twice early in the fourth, then Grusing and Bryant did the same to Jacob Sargent, who started the fourth in place of Martens.

Lauter and Pauls canned Espedido to put Brandon up 10-6 on its fifth of the set, before Bryant aced Sargent to make Davidiuk call his second and final timeout of the season.

After the break, Alberta tipped and Friesen drilled a pipe ball to make it 12-6.

Lauter pounded two middle kills in opposite directions to go ahead 14-7, waving his arms to pump up the crowd that was already at absolute maximum decibel level.

Alberta was fighting an uphill battle early but by then the Bobcats and their crowd were too much to overcome.

Serves hit the net and attacks hit the Bobcats perfected block defence, frozen in the air like statues.

It’s time to consider building one for Wilson, the man behind the most brilliant plan for three straight unforgettable nights.

Brandon missed seven serves in the fourth due to its sheer aggression from the back line, but made seven blocks, which more than made up for it.

“It felt like if we controlled the first touch, our game would succeed and that’s what happened,” Wilson said.

“Fortunately we really got them under pressure with our serves, our reception was stable and we played the game of our lives.”

The Bobcats kept their massive lead, extending it to 20-11, and while they led the Golden Bears come back to 21-15, then got the stops they needed before Heslinga sent his 52nd attempt wide and the HLC crowd into a mob on the floor.

It was the moment Grusing dreamed about when he transferred to BU and opted to redshirt not one but two seasons so he could end his final year of eligibility with a home-court nationals.

He walked off with 11 kills and five blocks as a tournament all-star.

“Does get better than this? The atmosphere in here is incredible,” Grusing said.

“Words can’t describe it. It’s awesome. It’s everything we worked for. Guys have been working for this their whole lives so you just take it, live in the moment and be grateful.

“We just knew we had to go one at a time, it’s not over until it’s over. They’re a great team, they can go on runs so we knew we couldn’t celebrate until we hit 25 in that last set. Once we got there, wow, it’s crazy.”

Lauter capped his Bobcat career with an 11-kill, nine-block night without a single hitting error. Naturally, he was named MVP.

Brandon posted 51 kills and 12 errors to Alberta’s 50 and 21. It had a massive 19 blocks while the U of A made only three all evening.

The Bobcats dramatically reached the final, following their 3-0 sweep of the Winnipeg Wesmen on Friday with a 3-2 reverse sweep over the Saskatchewan Huskies on Saturday evening.

Both bounced back to win their matches on Sunday — Winnipeg over Windsor for fifth and Saskatchewan over Sherbrooke for bronze.

In the Bobcats’ fifth trip to nationals, they now have their fifth medal.

Love received the other BU all-star nod after tallying five kills, 10 blocks, 40 assists and seven digs.

“It’s all kudos to my passers,” Love said. “If we control the first touch, we’re going to do awesome. We controlled it (Sunday).

“I don’t think I’ll forget this for the rest of my life. This is a pretty surreal feeling and I have so much gratitude for all my teammates, they worked their asses off. My coaches, my parents, everyone, my girlfriend, they all help out.

“We were striving for one goal and we finally got it to bring something home to the city.”

After Love grabbed the massive, golden Tantramar Trophy, he passed it to Wilson.

The 56-year-old as of Friday raised his hands full of the one prize he’s dreamed of hoisting and screamed once again.

“The guys love it when I say it after a big win. I was gonna do it here,” Wilson said.

“F—in’ rights.”

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com

» Instagram: @thomasfriesen5