Bobcats set for speedy serving Schmidt, Spartans

If you have Instagram and follow Canada West volleyball closely, you’ll see the Brandon University Bobcats are about to face an intimidating weapon.

Trinity Western Spartans outside hitter Kaden Schmidt broke his own program record, serving a ball 127 kilometres per hour at practice this week.

He’ll bring the heat to the Healthy Living Centre tonight at 7:45, following the 6 o’clock women’s match.

“Our theory is always bend but don’t break,” Bobcats head coach Grant Wilson said of facing tough serving.

“Find a way to pass the ball high to the middle of the court to give our offence some type of chance to side out and try to come back at them with some tough service pressure and rely on our block defence like we do.

“They can come with a lot of pressure from the service line from multiple players, so we really have to communicate well, know who’s responsible for what seams and what area of the court.”

Schmidt is one of the best servers in the country, with 25 aces this season. He trails his setter Anselm Rein (26) and Reed Venning of Queen’s University (31), while the team has 85 aces on the year, behind only Queen’s (92), which gets to take advantage of significantly softer competition in Ontario University Athletics.

Schmidt is also the top attacker in Canada, averaging 4.94 kills per set to lead the Spartans to a 10-2 record.

While Brandon is 5-7 and only just returned to the playoff picture with last weekend’s sweep of the host Fraser Valley Cascades (0-12), it has been equally dominant from the service line, racking up 79 aces on five fewer sets played.

If you’re wondering if that aggressive serving comes with more errors, you’d be correct.

Both teams are also in the top 10 in the country with more than 200 errors, and while every team wants to minimize those, it’s not as bad as it seems.

Examining BU’s 79 aces with 211 errors, it scores 28.2 per cent of unreturned serves. TWU’s 85 and 221 produce a similar mark of 27.8 per cent.

But while all bad serves are errors, not all great serves are aces. Some force the receiving team to simply keep the ball alive and return an easy “free” ball, which quite often ends up being a point for the serving team.

Since good teams at this level score between 65 and 70 per cent of the time when receiving, this aggressive serving mentality can swing a few critical points in a team’s favour over the course of a best-of-five match.

Bobcats middle blocker Riley Brunet knows it’s a risk worth taking. His defensive job is tough this weekend, especially when the Spartans are in system. The two things that stand out about them are their serving and speedy offence.

“At the end of the day, it’s who’s going to win the first-touch battle,” Brunet said.

“We have to somewhat match them on their serving and honestly pass better than them, and also eliminate the runs. They’ve got great servers and it’s figuring out how to get them off the line and moving on to the next point.”

Brandon is in ninth, but just one game back of a four-way tie at .500.

Its chances at a home quarterfinal have all but evaporated with the top four teams sitting on just one or two losses. However, like last season when the Bobcats had beaten all three teams they ended up playing at nationals during the regular season, a win or two this weekend would be massive for the group’s confidence heading into the post-season.

“It’s always a fun challenge to take on Trinity. They’re well-coached, they have all the pieces of the puzzle there that make them one of the top teams in the country. For sure, we’d rather play them here in our barn, in front of our crowd,” Wilson said.

“You look at their roster, the guys they have continue to mature and get better. They have some really good pieces there and they’re a challenge, a pretty big handful from the service line. They can score in different ways, so it’s the Trinity we’re used to seeing over the years.”

The BU women (1-11) are looking to climb out of last place against TWU (8-4), with eight matches left to reach at least six wins for a shot at one of 10 playoff spots.

QUICK HITS: On Saturday, the women play at 5 p.m., with the men following at 6:45 … The BU basketball teams are on a bye week … The Manitoba Colleges Athletic Conference futsal season kicks off on Saturday, with the Bobcats hosting the Assiniboine College Cougars at Henry Champ Gymnasium at 10 a.m. (women) and 11:45 a.m. (men).

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com