Sinoski, Bobcats fall in five on Senior Night

Aden Sinoski had enough reasons to step away from volleyball, but more to stay.

The Prince Albert, Sask., product has persevered through four concussions and a torn retina during his five years with the Brandon University Bobcats.

While his time on the court was non-existent at first and minimal today, the ripple effect of his impact could just be the difference between the Bobcats making the Canada West men’s volleyball playoffs or not this season.

Sinoski has been a solid serving substitute who head coach Grant Wilson depends on in more sets than not.

“Aden has been one of those guys that has really had to do it all for us, certainly in training. One day, he’s a middle, one day he’s a left side … right side … libero, he just does whatever he’s asked of him,” Wilson said.

“His serve is special. He’s got a really tough float serve that gives teams problems and he’s one of those guys that we look to late in games to come in and make a difference, and he’s done that this year.”

“It’s been great, it’s really exciting. A little bit of ups and downs with all the concussions, but I’m happy to be here,” Sinoski added following the Bobcats’ 3-2 (25-20, 31-33, 25-17, 18-25, 25-11) loss to the Alberta Golden Bears on Saturday, his last home match as a Bobcat.

The season could have been over before it started for the six-foot-four attacker. He was struck in the left eye by a ball during the Bobcats’ pre-season trip to Puerto Rico, to represent Canada at the NORCECA Final Six tournament.

It tore his retina, which required immediate surgery and a week of no activity.

Sinoski returned and stepped up massively in Saskatoon last semester, subbing in late in the fifth set to blast an ace, then serve the Saskatchewan Huskies out of system for another point, pushing Brandon to victory.

“It was great. I try and treat those games against Sask, Trinity, Alberta the same but it feels good to do it at home, especially with my brother (Daulton) on the (Huskies) bench, getting to play in front of him for the first time in a while,” Sinoski said.

Without that win, BU would be fighting for its playoff life.

But it has clinched a playoff spot, and is entering its last weekend of regular-season play in ninth place at 7-11 with 22 points.

It could fall to 10th, but no further, since Calgary (6-12, 18 points) and Thompson Rivers (6-12, 19 points) face each other.

The Bobcats have an outside chance at sixth, if they beat the eighth-place Winnipeg Wesmen (9-9, 27 points) in three or four sets and Mount Royal (9-9, 28 points) drops both to Trinity Western in three or four sets.

(Teams earn three points for a three- or four-set win and two for a 3-2 decision, with the loser taking the other point.)

Either way, the road back to nationals won’t be easy with teams like the one they just faced in the way.

The Golden Bears (13-5) broke the first set open midway through on Saturday, when Matt Shand served a four-point run, including an ace, to lead 18-13.

Needing some kind of run in response, the Bobcats never scored more than two in a row the rest of the way. Shand scored twice in a row to quickly put Alberta up 1-0.

The Bobcats made three straight errors early in the third, on a five-point run to put the Bears up 12-6.

Tom Friesen rattled off three straight kills to narrow the gap to 19-16, then made back-to-back errors, but bounced back with a four-point serving run.

BU pushed the set into extra points, and the U of A missed three serves after 24 to give Brandon a bunch of chances to close it before Pauls blasted an ace to take the set 33-31.

If that wasn’t exciting enough, the third set had more fire early. After both teams received warnings for behaviour, Matthew Siebenga celebrated a massive stuff block a little too hard and received a penalty, giving Alberta a point when it trailed 8-6.

The Bears ran with it, taking advantage of a trio of BU errors to get ahead 13-11.

Besides two missed serves, Alberta went error-free the rest of the set, convincingly pulling ahead 2-1.

The Bobcats started the fourth set with a run more dominant than any since they cranked the Bears in the national final last March. Ethan Baraniuk served three-straight points, followed by a penalty to Alberta coach Brock Davidiuk to lead 6-3.

Brandon then took 10 of the next 12 points while Alberta piled up errors in all facets of the game.

BU’s lead hit 16-6, wide enough to overcome a handful of hiccups and comfortably send it to a tie-breaking set.

The fifth was as back-and-forth as it could be, with neither team leading by more than until Alberta made two big digs to turn a point around and go up 11-9.

After a timeout, the Bobcats weren’t able to get as aggressive as they’d like on offence, allowing Shand to score off hands for the second straight point.

A few points later, Owen Harris scored off hands to put it away.

Sargent and Friesen tied with a match-high 18 kills. Keon Torz, who stepped in as BU’s defensive libero, had 10 digs for Brandon.

QUICK HITS: The BU women (3-15) were on a bye week, and will look to play spoiler against 10th-place Winnipeg (6-12) this Friday and Saturday, while trying to pass Mount Royal (4-14) and avoid last place.

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com