Fisher leads BU to smooth sweep of MRU

Kale Fisher’s first weekend as a Canada West starter wasn’t a recipe for success. His first one at home was a completely different story.

The third-year setter from Edmonton ran a blazing-hot offence on Saturday, piling up 34 assists on Brandon University’s 37 kills in a 3-0 (25-16, 25-21, 25-18) victory over the Mount Royal Cougars men’s volleyball team at the Healthy Living Centre on Saturday. Brandon made just eight errors and finished with a .420 hitting percentage on 69 attempts.

“I just want to give a shoutout to my passers. They were passing phenomenally. They made my job super easy,” Fisher said.

“The last two weeks with the bye week, what we focused on most was our connection with the hitters, and I think it really paid off.”

The Bobcats improved to 2-2, following a pair of 3-0 losses at the No. 1-ranked UBC Thunderbirds two weeks ago.

They regrouped and recovered from a gruelling stretch, which included the NORCECA Final Six tournament in Puerto Rico just before the regular season.

It translated into Mount Royal’s first two losses of the season as the Cougars put up 25 kills and 18 errors, hitting just .104.

BU’s block defence was massive from the start on Saturday, scoring five points with it in the first set and ending the night with 11 blocks.

While Fisher was seen as a downgrade from six-foot-seven JJ Love in that department, the six-foot-one setter led the team with five blocks, two of them being solo.

“I just started to not so much focus on trying to get kill blocks every time but just get touches, get slow downs, be in the right place so my middles are in a good spot there and that’s helped tremendously,” Fisher said.

Any adjustments the Cougars tried to make after Friday’s thrashing were to no avail early, as Tom Friesen and Liam Pauls picked them apart en route to a 6-2 lead.

BU led most of the way, and Grant Wilson subbed Aden Sinoski in to serve at 17-13. The journeyman serving sub rattled off a three-point run, including an ace to push Brandon to an easy set victory.

MRU finally showed up in the second, pulling ahead 14-12, but it gave up an absolutely devastating serving run as Pauls unloaded spinners for three straight aces, sandwiching two Shawn Sky timeouts.

BU led 20-15, but let it get as close as 21-19 before force-feeding Friesen for a few clutch kills.

The star outside hitter added an ace before Pauls blasted the set clincher a few points later.

At that point, Mount Royal had enough. The Cougars piled up eight hitting errors, including three into Bobcat blocks and never stood a chance.

Fisher fed Matthew Siebenga for four kills to cap his night with eight on 12 attempts without an error.

Friesen finished with a team-high 14 kills and just two errors, bringing him to 29 for the weekend and a strong candidate for the conference’s player of the week.

“He was playing super well, so I tried to feed him as much as possible,” Fisher said.

“But everyone, I thought, was playing very well, so I had four options on the court all the time.”

The Bobcats visit the Saskatchewan Huskies this weekend.

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com

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