BU rewards Thomson with sweep on senior night

What a night to remember for Carly Thomson.

The Brandon University Bobcats (3-13) rallied around their five-foot-nine setter on senior night to beat the Regina Cougars (5-11) in convincing fashion following a three-set sweep (25-18, 25-15, 26-24) during Canada West women’s volleyball action at the Healthy Living Centre Saturday night.

It’s no coincidence after a touching tribute video for Thomson, which included encouraging words from former teammates, the Bobcats came out of the gate with an extra pep in their step, displaying easily one of their best performances of the season.

“I don’t know how they expected me to play a game after that, but it was so special, and I’m gonna cherish that forever,” said Thomson post-victory. “We just had determination and that fire. You’re always playing for something a little bit extra on senior night, so everyone did a great job of coming out and just executing our game plan and just being 10 per cent better than we were yesterday.”

And it wouldn’t have taken a rocket scientist to notice. Compared to Friday night’s game, BU looked better prepared, more composed, more disciplined and most importantly, they looked connected.

Brandon cashed in on 45 kills and a .337 hitting percentage with just 13 attacking errors to Regina’s 35 kills, .143 hitting percentage and 19 attacking errors.

The Bobcats got off to a 6-4 lead following kills from Brynn Wildeboer, Megan Pickford and Stephanie Miller, who laid down an absolute cannon, before her team rattled off nine of the next 13 points to go up 15-8. The Cougars then went a streak of their own, notching five of seven to make it 17-13, and for just a moment, it looked like the seeds of doubt had once again been planted and Friday night’s disaster would repeat itself.

But not on Saturday. Not on senior night.

Brandon capitalized off Regina’s sloppy offence after Anna Schultz and Samantha Krausher both collected two attacking errors, and then the Bobcats showcased some nice counter-attacking ability using offensive weapons like Wildeboer and Pickford, who chalked down a few more kills, before five-foot-11 outsider hitter Cassidy Hauta smashed one down the corner to make it 23-15. She then set up Miller, who finished things off with a booming spike.

After the Bobcats drew first blood in the opener, Cassadi Klapak collected an ace for the Cougars to take the early lead, however, Brandon then rallied for four consecutive points thanks to a kill from Thomson, a pair from Miller and an attacking error from Bailey Balaberda.

Thomson, the headliner of the night, leaped to make a massive block on Krausher to put BU up by three at 10-7. They kept their three-point cushion with both teams notching seven points apiece to make it 17-14, and then Wildeboer slammed one down the left side to make it 21-15.

An ace from Grace Gallagher, a pair of kills from Dyer and another block from Thomson then propelled the Bobcats to a 25-15 decision. They had the Cougars on the ropes, but the job wasn’t done yet.

Regina’s urgency kicked into gear to start the third set as they stormed off to a 4-0 lead and then collected kills from Schultz, Krausher, Marquart and an attacking error from Pickford to take a commanding 8-2 lead. But Brandon showed the extra fight they lacked in the teams’ first duel. Dyer clocked one right through the middle to cut the lead to 14-7, before her club scored four of five to make it 15-11 Cougars.

The two went back and forth as BU stayed within range, but still couldn’t close the gap until Thomson set up kills for Pickford and Hauta, which kickstarted an incredible run of eight out of 10 scores to complete the comeback 26-24 after trailing 22-18. Thomson started the comeback, and also finished it, with the senior setting up the freshman Wildeboer to put the cherry on top of a special evening.

And no one was more relieved than Thomson after securing a win in her last-ever home game as a Bobcat.

“It makes it all worth it,” she said. “After last night, we knew today, we were going to come out there and get it done. Even when we were down in the third in the beginning, we knew that it was our game today. There was no chance we were losing that one.”

Win or lose, however, she’ll always be reminded of the friendship she’s made along the way. Forever.

“All the girls I got to spend with are just so special to me and they’re just so supportive and great, and I’ll just never forget them. Just friendships for life.”

BASKETBALL

The Bobcats women’s basketball team (5-11) dropped their second straight contest in Calgary, losing to the Mount Royal Cougars (10-8) in a tight 78-74 contest.

Piper Ingalls once again led Brandon in scoring with 27 points, just one point shy of her match-high this season. They will look to snap their two-game skid next week in Edmonton against MacEwan.

The BU men’s basketball team dropped to 6-9 after losing 79-75 to Mount Royal on Friday night. Brandon’s Munroop Gill had 28 points in its loss.

In Saturday’s game, the sixth-place Bobcats (6-10) fell 77-71 to the third-place Cougars (12-6) despite Sultan Haider-Bhatti’s game-high 23 points. Travis Hamburger added 16.

FUTSAL

The Bobcats women earned a weekend sweep, topping Canadian Mennonite University 8-1 on Saturday and beating St. Boniface 6-1 on Sunday.

The BU men tied CMU 5-5 on Saturday and topped St. Boniface 4-3 on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Assiniboine College Cougars women’s team earned a pair of 6-6 ties, on Saturday against St. Boniface and on Sunday against CMU.

The Cougars men fell 6-4 to St. Boniface on Saturday and 11-2 to CMU on Sunday afternoon.

» mdelucataronno@brandonsun.com