Bobcat men complete sweep of Griffins

The Brandon University Bobcats are used to punching above their weight, so when they’re the bigger team, look out.

BU dominated at the net all night, posting 43 kills to MacEwan University’s 22 in a 3-0 (25-22, 25-16, 25-19) victory to sweep the Canada West men’s volleyball weekend.

“We felt it was important to protect home court and we were able to do that this weekend,” said Bobcats head coach Grant Wilson.

“I wouldn’t say the process was as smooth (Saturday) as it was (Friday) but we’re working on some things and trying to get better.”

The Bobcats (3-1) led 8-2 in the first set as setter Kale Fisher spread the ball around to three different hitters for five early kills.

The closest the Griffins (0-4) came was 16-14, but Fisher dished to middle blocker Riley Brunet to kill the comeback.

Mason Lange delivered a few more kills, including the set winner after three straight service errors.

The second set had a scary moment early on, when Matt Siebenga cranked a kill off of libero Jarod Robert’s face, sending him stumbling back to the floor. Robert was down for a few minutes and didn’t return to the match.

“That was a difficult moment for everybody,” Wilson said. “Obviously there’s no intention from Matt to hit him. He went over immediately and apologized. It’s tough to see, whether it’s somebody on your team or the other team, go down like that.

“We’ve had guys go down with concussions before and it’s a really tough thing to deal with mentally as an athlete. It can be tough for the rest of the team and we’re just hoping he’s OK.”

The Bobcats pulled ahead 12-6 on three straight Griffins attacking errors, and were comfortable from there.

Fisher kept spreading the ball around, and backup setter Keon Torz kept Brandon rolling when Wilson double-subbed him and Ryden Hargreaves in for a few points.

Ethan Baraniuk ended the set with an ace.

The Griffins put up a better fight in the third, leading 10-7 at one point.

But the Bobcats stayed close and pulled ahead on Lange’s four-point serving run to make it 17-14.

Lange ended the night with a stuff block, sending Brandon into the bye week on a high, but not without a few things to work on.

“They served better and we didn’t serve as good as we did (Friday),” Wilson said.

“The first touch always dictates a lot of the play. They were in system more, so they scored more, and we were probably out of system and had to find ways to score and were fortunate enough to do that enough.”

Lange had a match-high 11 kills and four blocks, while Brunet and Kindle put up eight kills apiece.

BU hit .451 and recorded 10 blocks, limiting MacEwan to .070.

BU WOMEN FALL 3-0

The Bobcat women (0-4) simply made too many errors to compete on Saturday, losing 3-0 (25-17, 25-20, 25-23).

The Bobcats had 30 kills and 26 errors while the Griffins (2-2) posted 35 and 16.

BU coach Kailan Robinson certainly wasn’t impressed.

“Some of us are playing for the team and some of us are playing as individuals and we’re just struggling with chemistry, connections,” Robinson said.

“It’s tough when we have people competing for positions. Obviously there’s a few people who can play in every spot. We’re trying to put the best lineup out there with talent and who’s here for the team, who has a team-first mentality. It’s coming from that competition.”

The Bobcats hung around in the first set, but gave up a key four-point run to go down 18-11, then handed the Griffins three more in a row on hitting errors to trail 22-13.

The second set was tied 15-15 when Cassidy Hauta missed a serve, then had an attacking error after a MacEwan ace. The visitors added one more point to lead 19-15, and were able to trade points from there.

The Bobcats played their best in the third set, opening up a 19-14 lead before watching it slip away. First, the Griffins cleaned up their game and went almost error-free, but the Bobcats also handed a few key points away on a five-point run to put MacEwan up 22-20.

Backup setter Kaitlyn Couckuyt and Megan Pickford teamed up for a huge block to fend off one set point, but Alana Murr put it away on the following one.

Robinson saw a few positives, but not enough.

“One thing we’ve been really trying to focus on is our transition offence. We’re working really hard on our defence, setting our block, getting digs and being able to score in transition,” Robinson said.

“We are, for the most part, holding our opponents to a lower hitting percentage than they usually have, so we’re working defensively to be better, but now we need to convert that to offence.”

Maddy Shackleton led all hitters with 11 kills and six errors, while Grace Gallacher posted 19 assists and seven digs in her second consecutive start.

The Bobcats are off this week, then host the UBC Thunderbirds on Nov. 6-7.

“We definitely need the bye week to reset and think about our priorities and what we need to do as a team,” Robinson said. “It’ll be much needed for us.”

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com