Three Attieh sisters lead Fraser Valley Cascades past Brandon Bobcats
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/12/2023 (710 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The Brandon University Bobcats were always in tough this weekend, playing a Fraser Valley Cascades squad dubbed the Canada West women’s volleyball pre-season favourite.
BU (0-11) forced the UFV stars to bring their best stuff and stay on the floor for the duration of a 3-0 (25-22, 25-19, 25-18) sweep at the Healthy Living Centre on Friday.
When the Cascades (8-3) tried to rest a player or two, the Bobcats were all over them, but in the end just couldn’t get the scoring runs when they needed to.
Brooklyn Pratt of the Brandon Bobcats sets the ball against the University of Fraser Valley Cascades at the Healthy Living Centre on Friday evening. (Photo by Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun)
“It was so fun. We had such a good vibe, we didn’t get down on ourselves and we just kept pushing, we kept fighting,” said middle blocker Megan Pickford, adding a matchup against reigning conference player of the year Gabrielle Attieh didn’t phase her group.
“We’re just not scared of that. We go in there not being scared and being really aggressive with it. We do what we can do and go for it.”
Pickford said one point of emphasis for BU has been serving tougher, and that was on display as the Bobcats recorded nine aces. The Penticton, B.C., product led the team with three, along with two kills and two blocks.
Ultimately, the difference was the Attieh sisters. Gabrielle had 13 kills while Talia and Lauren picked up eight apiece.
Still, each set was close past the halfway point.
“Maybe some service runs they had, but other than that we were in it with them,” Pickford said.
The formula in the first set was simple. Whichever team passed better found success, and neither got much going with their setters on the run. UFV was sharper early to get ahead 14-10 and led 19-14 before the Bobcats served them into trouble and got some free balls to turn into easy points.
Pickford blasted a kill in the middle, then served a four-point run to bring BU back.
But the Bobcats handed the points back with a string of unforced errors to trail 23-18, and that was too much to overcome.
In the second set, Pickford and Ava Pearson teamed up on a dominant string of blocks to keep pace early, and then some uncharacteristic mistakes on the Cascades’ side meant they were only up 18-17.
Bobcats left side Avery Burgar digs the ball during BU's 3-0 loss to UFV. (Photo by Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun)
However, they took advantage of a string of miscues due to Brandon’s double-substitution, which took starting setter Carly Thomson off the floor for a back-breaking four-point run.
UFV led 22-17 and comfortably closed it out.
The Cascades looked on track to easily sweep the match, up 17-11 before the Bobcats roared back on Pearson’s serving run. The college transfer tied it 18-18 with back-to-back aces and forced UFV to bring Gabrielle Attieh back off the bench to avoid dropping the set.
With her back, they didn’t even drop another point, closing it out with seven straight.
The teams meet again today at 5 p.m.
» tfriesen@brandonsun.com
» X: @thomasmfriesen