Calgary overpowers Brandon in 3-0 sweep

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This article was published 01/02/2025 (308 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Brandon University Bobcats have officially hit must-win territory.

The only bright side is that there are many ways they can improve from Friday’s 3-0 (25-18, 25-15, 25-13) defeat by the Calgary Dinos (5-12) at the Healthy Living Centre.

The Bobcats (2-13) have to win today’s rematch at 6:45 p.m., to keep their slim Canada West women’s volleyball playoff hopes alive.

“We want to prove to this team that that’s not us,” said Bobcats captain Avery Burgar, who led the team with 10 kills and six errors.

“We know we can play better regardless of the standings. We just want to go out there and show ourselves that we can be a better team.”

The loss would have been the final blow, if not for their giant upset of the Fraser Valley Cascades last weekend.

Burgar and the Bobcats were brilliant that night against a much stronger side as the Sylvan Lake, Alta., product earned a conference athlete of the week award.

But six days later, a team fighting for the last of 10 playoff spots exposed them with a whopping 39 kills and just five errors, hitting .436.

Brandon posted 23 and 18 for a woeful .059.

“It was definitely on our side,” Burgar said. “We just didn’t give ourselves as much of a chance to play (Friday). Didn’t pass super great and missed some serves at some key points, couldn’t score at certain points when we should have. They did well capitalizing on that.

“We maybe put too much pressure on ourselves after last weekend. We all just need to take a breath. We know we can play better.”

Burgar generated almost all of Brandon’s scoring in the first set, starting with two aces, then six kills as her team led 11-6 and 16-13.

But after that, the only points the Bobcats scored were on Dinos’ missed serves as Sophia Hansen torched them for six kills, error-free on 10 attempts.

Calgary scored 12 of the last 14 points in the set to come back and snag the first set.

The Dinos made their 11-2 run earlier in the second set, with Bobcat errors accounting for the bulk of the 17-8 scoreline.

BU’s Carly Thomson, who led the league in kills by a setter halfway through the season, met her match. Six-foot-three Dinos’ setter Anya Fehr picked the Bobcats’ defence apart with three kills in the first set and two more in the second while running an ultra-efficient offence at .474 while holding Brandon to .036.

In the third, the Dinos didn’t let the Bobcats hang around at all, going up 5-1 and extending the lead to 14-6 with Hansen piling up five more kills.

BU narrowed the gap to 16-12, then gave up seven in a row with more mistakes than Calgary kills to end the night quickly.

Hansen ended up with 14 kills and two errors while Daisy Olsen had seven kills without a miss.

“Last weekend, we were able to bounce back if we were down and we just didn’t have that (Friday),” Burgar said.

“Hopefully we can find that (today).”

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