Huskies knock Bobcats out of playoffs

The Brandon University Bobcats’ dream of another national title is over.

There will be no sequel to the storybook ending they wrote last year.

For the majority of the weekend, the Saskatchewan Huskies were simply a matchup nightmare the Bobcats couldn’t handle. They took Match 2 of their Canada West men’s volleyball play-in series 3-1 (25-17, 25-22, 25-27, 25-17) in Saskatoon on Friday, sweeping the series 2-0.

Saskatchewan limited BU star outside hitters Tom Friesen and Liam Pauls to a combined 14 kills and seven errors while they missed nine serves. Bobcats head coach Grant Wilson often says the dynamic duo need to be his best players, and they were neutralized.

“It certainly wasn’t their best game in terms of execution,” Wilson said.

“Teams game plan and they know those two guys are our best guys. When you get in meaningful games, good block defence teams and teams that serve to put you under pressure, they know where they need to be and when they need to be there. They did a really good job defending both Tom and Paulsy.”

On the flip side, Liam Kindle racked up a match-high 16 kills with eight errors, adding two blocks and five digs less than 24 hours after leaving Thursday’s match when he took a hard spike to the head.

The Brandonite made a confidence-building statement for his fifth and final year of eligibility in 2026-27.

“He’s the one guy that hadn’t been out there in meaningful situations before, so it was great to see him play well like that,” Wilson said.

“Definitely looking for him to take another step to continue building off of that for next year.”

The Huskies are off to Langley, B.C., to face the Trinity Western Spartans in the quarterfinals.

The Bobcats are taking a bus home this morning.

Just like Thursday, Brandon struggled to control the ball early, as Cooper Bevan gave up an ace on a routine serve and Kindle made an unforced error to trail 4-1.

Saskatchewan opened up a 14-8 lead on a four-point Noah Opseth serving run, another repeat of Thursday’s first set, when the veteran setter did so on his first two trips to the service line.

Brandon didn’t manage any sort of run until it trailed 23-15 when Kale Fisher fed Matthew Siebenga for a middle kill, then served an ace. BU made it three in a row on a Saskatchewan net touch.

But Fisher missed his next serve, and Isaiah Mamer aced Bevan once again to end the set.

Brandon simply needed to get ahead and gain some confidence, and did so as Kindle got rolling with five early kills to push his team up 9-5.

The next few points went back and forth as the teams traded huge blocks, feeling the need to let each other know after each one.

Down 15-11 still, the Huskies adjusted and started playing quiet tips off hands to avoid getting rejected, and pulled within one.

Saskatchewan gave a few more points away than normal, letting Brandon off the hook.

BU stayed ahead the rest of the way, earning four set points. They used three of them, but Tom Friesen earned the set winner after a perfect pass to tie the match 1-1.

“We needed to be more aggressive with everything. Our reception … our attacking … our serving needed to be more aggressive,” Wilson said. “When we did that, it paid dividends. Sure, you’re going to make mistakes playing aggressive but you can also put the other team under pressure to make different decisions.

“It at least gave ourselves a chance and got us back in the game.”

The Bobcats trailed by two early in the third but quickly erased the deficit on a three-point run, then added another trio of points on Siebenga’s thundering spin serve, going up 14-10 before the middle blocker committed his second foot fault of the set.

Brandon bounced right back as Friesen hammered home three kills in a row to get ahead 17-11.

The Bobcats maintained the six-point lead to 20-14, then gave up three more points on Opseth’s serve to make Wilson call a timeout.

Wilson earned the “coach’s point” as Saskatchewan erred on the ensuing serve.

Again, Brandon led 24-20, but coughed up the lead on a Friesen error and two Rueben Veith kills to tie it 24-24.

Veith scored again to fend off another set point, then subbed back out for Aaron Elser, who cranked back-to-back aces thanks to another Bevan shank to pull ahead 2-1.

“We talk about living in the moment, playing one point at a time,” Wilson said. “It looked like it impacted us, but at the time, I wasn’t really convinced it was going to impact us.

“It was probably more of a positive impact for their team to gain momentum and confidence after it. I’m not sure we were much different but they were much better and took over.”

The Bobcats dug themselves into a hole by giving up six straight early in the fourth set.

They rallied back to a 9-8 deficit, only to let Emmett Graham swing away at the net and the service line to retake the four-point lead.

After Wilson’s second timeout, BU gave up two more, as any positive body language they displayed to that point seemed to slip away.

Isaiah Mamer recognized it and padded his stats with three kills down the home stretch to tie for a match-high 16.

Friesen ended the match with a serve that landed as close to the end line as the Bobcats were to advancing to the quarterfinals — not very.

“We put up a good fight. Slow start again, for whatever reason, not sure. It’s been our Achilles heel all year, but played a really good second set and a really good third set until the end,” Wilson said.

“They seemed to gain some momentum, ended up finishing that set and they came out strong in the fourth. We battled reception again and they bombed away and took over.”

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com