Huskies stomp Bobcats in series opener

If the Brandon University Bobcats finally show up in Saskatoon today, they’ll need to win two straight matches or kiss their U Sports men’s volleyball title defence goodbye.

The No. 7-seed Saskatchewan Huskies smashed the 10th-ranked Bobcats 3-0 (25-16, 25-19, 25-21) in the first match of their Canada West men’s volleyball play-in round in Saskatoon on Thursday.

“We just were not in the fight, pretty disappointing effort on our side of the net, for the most part,” said Bobcats head coach Grant Wilson.

“Sask did what they needed to do, and we gave away a lot of points and just were fighting the game, playing uphill all night and never got on track. We had some good runs but just couldn’t sustain it, and they made us pay.”

The Bobcats gave up the first four points of the match. As they learned last year at nationals, the Huskies are remarkably tough to come back against.

So while it’s usually not how you start but how you finish, that sputtering start killed Brandon.

The Bobcats were completely unable to score on serve for the full first rotation, once again giving up a four-point serving run to Huskies setter Noah Opseth.

Liam Pauls scored twice on a four-point BU run to get it closer, but then the Bobcats gave it all right back by committing three errors on the next four points.

The Huskies just needed to trade points from there. They posted 15 kills and only two errors in the set while limiting Brandon to eight and three.

“When they build that lead, they just take a lot of risk from the service line and they put us under tremendous pressure,” Wilson said. “We struggled to receive and when we did, they had big blocks in front of us. We had a hard time scoring. Full credit to them, they put us under pressure and we unfortunately didn’t handle it very well.”

Brandon was much sharper in the second set, as it was back and forth up to 14-14, when all-Canadian Emmett Graham blasted back-to-back aces to put the hosts ahead two.

After a Tom Friesen error, Aaron Elser cranked another ace. The Bobcats trailed 20-15 before getting bailed out by a missed serve.

Brandon then turned two points around with big digs, followed by a block on Graham and a Pauls cross-court kill to narrow the gap – only to give up yet another ace to Jacob Baird.

The Huskies closed it out when Pauls sailed an attack long, going up 2-0 with no signs of slowing down.

Wilson preaches the importance of serving and passing every day, and it was clear Saskatchewan dominated in both facets of the game.

“We talked about being able to change the looks on servers, whether we pull somebody in as a fourth passer or we spread out or bunch up or move to the sideline, whatever it may be,” Wilson said.

“It felt like they were going back there, seeing the same thing and taking a rip.”

Keon Torz, who played libero for the first two sets, started the third at setter.

Saskatchewan took the first big lead of the third at 8-5, and were ahead 12-9 when Brandon rattled off a strong run to tie it up, and more. A few big defensive plays helped Brandon to its match-high five-straight points to lead 14-12 before Isaiah Mamer smoked Liam Kindle in the head on a line shot, causing him to leave the match.

One could say the stoppage while Kindle lay on the floor killed BU’s momentum, as Saskatchewan replied with a six-point run to take control yet again, thanks to a stunning five straight Bobcat errors.

The rest of the set was relatively clean on both sides, and that was good enough for Saskatchewan to roll through the closest set of the night without worry.

Pauls had eight kills and seven errors for Brandon, while Kindle and Friesen had six kills and two errors each.

Graham led all attackers with 15 kills and four errors, while Mamer notched 13 and three.

The Huskies hit .359 to the Bobcats’ .145.

Today’s second match starts at 6 p.m. If BU wins, the third match goes Saturday at 2 p.m.

“I want to see us compete for every point like we did the last couple of weekends,” Wilson said of his team’s four-straight losses to Alberta and Winnipeg.

“We didn’t get the end result, but we competed hard point for point, set for set. If we come up with that type of fight, I believe we could be playing another game on Saturday and giving ourselves a chance.”

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com