Bobcats avoid Canada West volleyball powerhouses
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The Brandon University Bobcats volleyball schedule is out, and the most glaring part is what’s missing.
Since Canada West shortened the season to 20 matches from 24, each men’s team skips two opponents, while the women don’t see three in any given season.
This year, BU doesn’t see either Canada West or U Sports champion, as their byes include Alberta and Trinity Western.
Riley Brunet and the Brandon University Bobcats will open the 2026-27 Canada West men's volleyball regular season at UBC Okanagan on Oct. 23. (Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun)
“That’s the one that stands out the most, because every year you kind of use Alberta and Trinity as the measuring sticks in the conference,” said BU men’s head coach Grant Wilson.
“It’s unfortunate, we’ve obviously had some good rivalries with those two programs. With that being said, they’re both teams that can dominate the conference at times, so if we’re not playing them, hopefully we can take advantage of playing other teams and find some success.”
The BU men open pre-season play with their home tournament on the first weekend of October, then head to Queen’s University on Thanksgiving weekend to face the host Gaels, York Lions and Laval Rouge et Or.
The Bobcats are likely off to Winnipeg for the Wesmen event following weekend to close their exhibition slate.
BU opens Canada West play on Oct. 23 at UBC Okanagan, then plays its home opener the following weekend against MacEwan. After a bye, it hosts UBC.
“Both UBCO and UBC will be teams that are expected to finish at the top again this coming season. Those will be big measuring sticks for us at the start of the year to see where we’re at,” Wilson said.
The Bobcats visit the Mount Royal Cougars, then cap the first semester on the last weekend of November against Wilson’s son Reece, who is assistant coaching the Thompson Rivers WolfPack.
“Excited for lots of reasons, from a personal standpoint and a family standpoint, it’ll be an exciting weekend for our family,” Grant Wilson said.
“Team-wise, they’re very similar to us; they’re young but they’re pretty dynamic and have some really good pieces there.
“That’ll be a big weekend on the court and it’ll be fun off the court too.”
The Bobcats have back-to-back road weekends against Manitoba and Calgary (men only), then host Winnipeg, visit Fraser Valley and host Saskatchewan to cap the regular season on Feb. 12-13.
The BU women go one week later, as they visit the Regina Cougars on the last weekend of regular-season action.
Head coach Kailan Robinson is hoping that isn’t the last weekend for a large group of graduating players this year.
Anticipation has been building for the 2026-27 season, enough that a handful of players have stayed to train for the summer, while Robinson is keeping her maternity leave short so she can return for the regular season.
“There’s so much excitement,” Robinson said.
“We haven’t seen a lot of seniors graduating, people sticking it out for that last year. It shows we’re building something people want to be a part of, which is just so special.”
While last year featured a tough start and a lighter finish, which the Bobcats needed to essentially sweep to keep their playoff hopes alive, this one includes three of the bottom-five teams in the league from last season in the first semester.
BU played its heaviest pre-season slate in recent history last season, but that won’t be the case this year.
“You have to look a lot at how we handled our load last season in terms of injuries,” Robinson said.
“We were pretty hurt towards the latter half of the season last year, so we’re lightening it up a bit.”
The Bobcats head to Winnipeg for the U of M tournament in mid-September, and will travel with the Wesmen to Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ont., the following weekend.
They’re taking the following weekend off, then playing at Minot State on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving weekend.
The Bobcats have been on a slow climb, from a winless 2022-23 up one victory per year. They’ve been last in the 14-team league each season, but feel this is the year to change it.
“Lots of teams have some turnover of seniors … even U of M will have six, seven seniors leave the team,” Robinson said. “Everything will look quite different next season.”
» tfriesen@brandonsun.com