Pauls looks to rebound on Senior Night

Liam Pauls had one of his slowest starts of the season, but turned it around in an instant on Friday.

It wasn’t enough for the Brandon University Bobcats to overcome a machine-like Alberta Golden Bears offence in a 3-0 (25-20, 26-24, 27-25) decision at the Healthy Living Centre, but it was a sign of how far the best player in Stonewall Rams history has come in his Canada West men’s volleyball career.

Pauls will play his last regular-season match as a Bobcat in tonight’s rematch at 6 o’clock.

“I’m definitely not the same person now that I was when I got here,” Pauls reflected. “When I got here, I was quiet. I wouldn’t really call myself a gamer. But now I’m confident, I’ve made a lot of new friends and it’s been surreal what volleyball can do for people.

“I feel like I’m a lot more self-analytical,” he added. “I know how to correct myself, I know when I’m not doing what I need to do, and (head coach Grant Wilson) opened my mind so much more.”

Pauls arrived at BU as an 18-and-under club volleyball national champion with Bisons Volleyball Club, and it didn’t take long for him to push his way into the lineup.

The six-foot-six outside hitter was a solid starter as a sophomore, and a star by his third year.

He’s been one of the go-to guys for the Bobcats for the past two years and brought some of his best stuff to deliver Brandon its first-ever U Sports volleyball crown on home court 11 months ago.

Pauls feels one of the biggest reasons BU pulled it off is the attitude Wilson instills in the program.

“I was the kid who always wanted to prove something, and he really encourages always having a chip on your shoulder, that competitive edge, and that aggression that I’m so happy he brought out of me,” Pauls said.

“A lot of these guys here weren’t the biggest recruits. I’ll proudly say I wasn’t the biggest recruit coming out of high school. I’m really proud of that because it shows what you can become when you get here and when you focus on getting better.”

Wilson had high hopes for Pauls from the start, and quickly realized his work ethic would take him a long way, including to the Volleyball Canada NextGen team Wilson assistant coached last summer, and to somewhere in Europe to begin his professional career next fall.

“We really liked Paulsy from the time we saw him,” Wilson said.

“He came in here and eventually bought into how we were doing things. He just works so hard chasing his dreams and goals, and it led to everything that happened last year, being an all-star at nationals, being selected to the NextGen national team and I couldn’t be more proud of him.”

Don’t expect Pauls to be overcome by emotions tonight, though. He’s far too focused on BU’s playoff push. The team is now 7-10, scratching and clawing for a top-10 spot in a four-way race for the last three.

And fifth-place Alberta (12-5) won’t let up tonight, with a chance to host a quarterfinal still possible.

“I’m here to win. It can be emotional, it can be a distraction, I’m here to win end of the day. That’s what I’m focused on,” Pauls said, adding Friday’s match was frustrating.

“I felt like we had a hard time getting rhythm tonight mentally.

“They’re a good team, they did what they needed to do, and it didn’t feel like we were in rhythm as much as we normally were.”

Pauls returned after missing the MacEwan weekend with an ankle injury, and got an early kill but made two errors and missed a serve as Alberta went up three points.

The Golden Bears didn’t have to attack much in the first set, thanks to their dominant defence. They scored with a few stuff blocks and turned some points around on libero Marek Edwards’ tough defence.

Alberta led 11-6 before Brandon started chipping away, not with one big run, but by completely preventing the visitors from scoring on serve.

The Bobcats narrowed the gap within one but never quite tied it. Then, down 19-18, they gave up a critical three-point run that started with another Pauls error.

The fourth-year outside hitter missed his next serve to bring up set point, and Jacob Sargent put it away immediately afterwards to lead 1-0.

Alberta raced ahead 6-2 in the second on a four-point Owen Harris serving run.

A few more Liam Kindle and Pauls errors padded the lead to 11-5, but Tom Friesen sparked Brandon with back-to-back aces, then Riley Brunet added another to make it 12-10.

Pauls made his fifth error of the night as Alberta pulled back ahead 15-11, then finally found his groove, serving five straight points, including an ace to cap the run and give BU just its second lead of the night — the first being 1-0 in the second set.

From there, it was perfect sideout volleyball on both sides, with just one error each over the following 15 points.

The Bears finally scored a second point in a row at 23-23, following a terrific one-armed dig by Matt Shand.

BU fought off one set point but gave up an ace on the next to trail 2-0.

Brandon kept the third set close, finally avoiding the big runs early. It led through the first half of the set but slowed down offensively as Alberta had an answer for every attack.

The Bears had two three-point runs in the frame, both on middle blocker Trent Cherewaty’s booming spin serve, with the second putting them up 22-20.

Matthew Siebenga served up a huge three-point run to give BU a set point, but it was all Alberta after that.

Friesen got blocked, then Harris ended the night on an ace.

Dylan Martens and Shand posted 17 kills apiece to lead an Alberta offence that hit .375 with just nine errors. Brandon hit .216 with Pauls’ team-high 11 kills and Kindle’s 10.

QUICK HITS: The Bobcats women’s basketball team (7-12) secured a playoff spot, despite losing 95-89 to the Manitoba Bisons (6-13) in Winnipeg. Lethbridge (5-14) lost 65-45 to Alberta (14-5), meaning BU will finish sixth or seventh in the Prairie Division.

The Bobcat men’s game ended after deadline.

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com