Siebenga steps up as BU completes sweep

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This article was published 27/01/2025 (235 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Matthew Siebenga won’t soon forget how the ball felt on his outstretched arms.

The rookie middle blocker was a half-step late but threw his arms out and rejected Jonas Van Huizen for the biggest block of his career, capping a Brandon University Bobcats 3-1 (28-26, 25-16, 27-29, 25-23) victory over the Fraser Valley Cascades (6-10) at the Healthy Living Centre, improving to 6-8 in the Canada West men’s volleyball standings.

“Still buzzing,” Siebenga said a minute later.

“Very special, I’m really glad G (coach Grant Wilson) gave me the opportunity and I’m happy to show off.”

A night earlier, he sat in a suit and tie to watch his team win in four sets. He started the fourth set in place of Riley Brunet. When Siebenga ended the match, the Albertan was the first off the bench to hug the teammate who replaced him.

Brunet had his moment on Friday, picking up six kills without an error in his first-career start, but struggled on Friday and gave way to the rookie.

“(Siebenga’s) been working so hard, hoping and waiting for an opportunity. (Saturday) it happened and he ran with it. I’m just so proud of him,” Wilson said. “Our role guys did exactly what we needed. They came in and did the job and gave confidence to our group, gave us energy.

“We preach all the time it’s a team win or a team loss whatever happens. This weekend, it’s pretty evident our success was from the depth of our team.”

Siebenga finished with three kills and one error, hitting .500 while Riley Grusing posted 13 kills and Liam Pauls and Ryden Hargreaves notched 12 apiece. The first set was air-tight until 20-19 UFV when Wilson went to serving sub Kale Fisher and he delivered an ace, a few more tough serves and one key dig to string four points in a row and make it 23-20.

UFV took five of the next six points to tie it, but up against set point on two occasions, Hargreaves and Pauls drilled the first ball home to side out. Brunet hammered down an overbump, then Philipp Lauter unleashed a nearly untouched ace to take the set.

The second set was an error fest for Fraser Valley, including four early mistakes with back-to-back blocks by Hargreaves and Lauter sending Brandon ahead 9-4.

A big part of the early lead was BU’s serving, as it sent setter Silas Van Huizen scrambling just to keep plays alive, let alone run an offence.

A night after the Bobcats managed just eight blocks in four sets, they piled up five in the second set and led 16-7 before Cascades coach Nathan Bennett gave his setter a breather, knowing they’d be down 2-0.

The visitors came out strong in the third set as Nimo Benne ripped three aces on a five-point run to lead 5-1.

It was the messiest set of the evening after that, with BU making slightly fewer mistakes to eventually tie it 18-18.

It stayed within a point until set point when the Bobcats fended off one on a Hargreaves kill and another on a Love-Lauter block.

But they were unable to close it out on two attempts, and Jonas Van Huizen ended a long rally to force the fourth set on UFV’s third set point.

“The third set is the one where they got us, Nimo had four or five serves early and we played catchup the rest of the set,” Wilson said.

“Otherwise I thought we did a good job handling their tough servers, and we missed quite a few but when we did serve, we served with pretty good pressure.”

Siebenga replaced Brunet in the fourth set and played like anything but a rookie, slotting the first three sets Love gave him into position No. 5 for kills.

“G let me know, get ready, get warm, Kale helped me get warm on the sideline, I was feeling great,” Siebenga said.

“J’s always good putting the ball where I need it and it’s just carving it around from there. It felt pretty fluid. I like working with J.”

The Cascades never led after going up 7-6 and the Bobcats never led by more than two as missed serves snapped any would-be scoring runs.

UFV tied it 23-23 when Siebenga made his only error at the net by a mere centimetre or two.

Pauls brought up match point, and following a timeout, Siebenga ended it

“Great vets on the team, they came up to me like, ‘At least you didn’t tip it. Go out swinging. We’re human, we make errors,’” Siebenga said.

It’s been a change of pace for the six-foot-seven Hamilton native, who played for Volleyball Canada’s National Excellence Program before joining the Bobcats.

He feels he has grown a lot as a player for one main reason.

“Having great coaches,” Siebenga said.

“G is incredible and he’s really big on middle blocking. It’s awesome. Same with Big Dawg (Bryston Keck), he’s always there helping us and Frank (Jones), they’re drilling us every day and it’s finally paying off.”

This Friday and Saturday, the Bobcats host the Calgary Dinos (6-10), who just swept the Trinity Western Spartans on Saturday to score a weekend split.

Wilson’s focus for the next few days, however, isn’t on the men in red.

“Get better. We gotta get better every day, every week,” he said.

“Just continue to push ourselves to improve every day, whatever it is, half a per cent, one per cent.”

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