Hauta helps BU to near-upset of MRU

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This article was published 05/02/2024 (591 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Cassidy Hauta earned every ounce of applause she drew from the Healthy Living Centre crowd.

Not just in one jump and perfect fourth-set-winning block, but in the two years she’s paid her dues quietly for a moment like that. The rookie right side and the Brandon University Bobcats (1-19) can only wonder what kind of roar they’d hear if the tiebreaker went their way, too.

But the Mount Royal Cougars (6-14) silenced the spectators with a 3-2 (25-18, 25-21, 26-28, 26-28, 15-4) victory in their Canada West women’s volleyball match on Saturday.

“It felt amazing, honestly,” Hauta said of her fifth block of the night.

“It felt like the two years of work, getting through that redshirt (season) and going in that double sub finally paid off in that moment, seeing it touch the ground like that.”

“Just that one serve just got us down and our momentum went down a little bit,” she added of Emma Boyd’s eight-point run to start the fifth. “The girls are really good at getting each other back together but it just kept us a little lower.”

Hauta joined the Bobcats last season, but did not dress for a match. The five-foot-nine outside hitter from Saskatoon waited patiently and worked on her craft enough to make the roster, but essentially started the year as the second or third option at right side.

She got limited action when interim head coach Kailan Robinson put her on with backup setter Alex Roberge in a double substitution, to have three hitters at the net for three extra rotations.

Hauta took some time to get going, but ended the night with nine kills and seven errors with seven digs as one of just four BU attackers to finish with a positive hitting percentage.

Following a 3-0 loss on Friday, Robinson mixed a few things up and threw Hauta in along with Roberge, who she spends a lot of time practising with on the second unit.

“We know each other well, she knows what I like for a set and I know how to work off her set so it was really easy for me to be able to use that to my advantage for sure,” Hauta said, adding her approach to starting was different than coming off the bench.

“The double sub, you gotta get in that flow quick.

“This time, I knew I was in there for the long run so it was important to keep more calm throughout the game.”

It certainly hasn’t been easy to be on this team, especially in 2022-23 when nearly half the team quit. Hauta had to helplessly watch 12 home losses and stay in Brandon for most of the road weekends, which ended in 12 more defeats.

It’s tough to blame anyone who walked away after that and worth commending anyone who stuck it out, hoping things get better in the years to come.

Saturday was a big boost for Hauta, who’s had to keep the bigger picture in mind through her two seasons.

“It’s always knowing you’re here for a purpose. You’re on this team for a reason,” Hauta said. “Just keep working hard every practice. Eventually, it pays off like that block, it felt like it paid off finally.”

If BU could have finished the first set the way it started, that block could have been the match winner.

The Bobcats kept the first set close, trailing 16-15 before giving up a five-point run. Like Friday’s struggles, it happened with leading outside hitter Avery Burgar in the back row and the Bobcat setter at the net.

The Cougars didn’t wow anyone offensively but took advantage of 11 BU hitting errors and five missed serves to take the first set.

The Bobcats got going with their defence in the second set, blocking Friday’s kill leader Jessica Osczevski twice early as Alex Roberge served a five-point run to lead 8-3.

However, Osczevski kept swinging and ripped a few around the BU block to narrow the gap.

For the next few points, the Cougars made mistakes of aggression and the Bobcats made mistakes of uncertainty. The only hard hits to find the floor were by Mount Royal, whether they were kills or stuff blocks.

MRU finally took the lead at 18-17. While Brandon kept pace to 20-20, it made two bad passes over the net for the Cougars to thump down for easy points as they pulled away to a 2-0 lead.

There wasn’t much separating the teams in the third set besides the Cougars handling the serve-pass game a little better.

They led most of the way but Brandon made a pair of massive blocks to go up 19-18.

After MRU pulled ahead 22-21, Burgar brought BU back with two huge kills off blocks, then headed back to serve. While she wasn’t an option, Roberge distributed the ball well to Hauta and Laura Ramsey for massive kills to push past 25 points. Nerissa Dyer served an ace to force the fourth set.

Once again, BU dropped a string of points with Hauta and Burgar in the back to trail 17-14. The broken record continued as Brandon pulled back into it with three big blocks by Roberge, Dyer and Hauta, respectively, to lead 22-21.

The block party continued, and while BU missed four of six serves in the most important moments, it hit the ball aggressively and scored a season-high 17 kills in the set with just five errors. The Bobcats made a massive eight blocks, including the set sealer by Dyer and Hauta.

“That one was definitely really good for our momentum to get hyped after all those blocks,” Hauta said.

“(We) definitely started seeing tendencies more. (Osczevski) was hitting a lot of cross so we knew we had to adjust to that.”

A team with nothing to lose suddenly got tight in the fifth, however, as the Bobcats struggled to serve it in, pass it well or find the court with anything but a free ball.

MRU led 10-1 before the Burgar split a double block for a kill. The Cougars were content to trade points from there and leave the Bobcats just a moral victory — and a point for making it to the fifth set that will have no bearing on the playoff picture, which as of this weekend officially won’t include BU.

Burgar led all attackers with 20 kills and 13 errors while Camryn Hildebrand had 10 kills, four errors and seven blocks.

BU had a season-high 19 blocks to MRU’s 10 but hit .092 while the Cougars hit .126.

The Bobcats host the Thompson Rivers WolfPack this Friday and Saturday, then head to UBC the following weekend to close the season against the No. 1-ranked Thunderbirds.

“It’s a big confidence booster for us for sure to know we can compete against any team and know we can put the block up and get some scores in there,” Hauta said. “It’s exciting to know what we can do in these next two weekends.”

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