Bobcats beat Wesmen in four sets to stay alive

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This article was published 11/03/2022 (1465 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Some counted the Brandon University Bobcats out after Thursday’s debacle and more felt they were done when they went down big in the first set on Friday.

It turns out they like it that way. The Bobcats stormed back to steal the first set and ultimately a 3-1 (31-29, 25-22, 15-25, 25-23) victory over the Winnipeg Wesmen in the second round of the Canada West men’s volleyball playoffs in Edmonton.

The Bobcats may have lost the last three of the provincial rivals’ meetings but they won the eighth and most important one.

“Tough to game plan against a team that knows your ins and outs,” Bobcats captain Jake Fleming told media after the match. “They knew what we were trying to do … they knew what we were trying to do and we just had a better time slowing down their good hitters and had some success that way.”

Brandon (1-1) is still alive and needs an Alberta (1-0) win over Winnipeg (0-1) at 8 p.m. CT tonight to reach the final four. A Wesmen win, no matter how many sets, sends Brandon home but Bobcats controlled what they could control.

“We did everything we wanted to do after the first night,” Fleming said. “We were looking for a good bounce-back night and I think it came to us. We’re ready to keep playing some good volleyball and hopefully, things fall our way (tonight).”

A night after BU missed 16 serves in three sets, it erred four more times early in the first. Jens Watt committed three hitting errors as Winnipeg pulled ahead 13-9.

The Bobcats settled down and kept the ball in play as the Wesmen picked up three hitting errors and served two into the net. Winnipeg coach Larry McKay didn’t call time until it was knotted 18-18.

Brandon went down 21-19 on a few unforced errors, but Dornez missed his serve and Thiessen touched the net on the next point. Joao Cunha, making his first start as an attacker since January, scored from the right side to pull ahead 23-22.

Both teams gave away two chances to close it out as the score pushed to 27-27. Watt saved two set points with tips before serving a cannon the Wesmen over bumped straight to Brook for a thundering kill. Nigel Neilsen’s fourth hitting error of the frame sailed long to give Brandon a 1-0 lead.

“It was all us,” said middle blocker Philipp Lauter. “We didn’t play good and they just played decent but didn’t do anything special. We’ve been in this position before, down 16-11 against Trinity in the second set. we had to focus in, play better volleyball and came out on top.”

Thiessen hit a pair of balls off the antenna on left side to put Brandon up a 3-1 in the second. Then Cunha served a four-point run with an ace, Bryston Keck kill and Jaxon Rose error to lead 10-4.

The teams traded kills and service errors for a while as Brandon maintained the six-point edge to 20-14. Neither side managed more than a two-point run until Lauter and Watt made back-to-back errors and the Wesmen climbed back to a 21-19 deficit.

Fleming went right back to Lauter, who packed libero Darian Picklyk to go up three. The setter found his first-team all-star to make it 23-20. And again to bring up set point at 24-21.

After a Thiessen kill, Cunha blasted a cross-court shot to put Brandon ahead 2-0.

“That’s huge having (Cunha) as a hitter, as a blocker, as a swinger is massive,” Lauter said. “Thank goodness his shoulder’s good again and everybody hopes it holds because he’s such a valuable piece of our offence and defence.”

The third set was a true back-and-forth battle, finally, as the teams traded blows to 12-12. Winnipeg’s block defence came alive but the Wesmen missed four serves early to keep Brandon in it.

Neilsen scored back-to-back kills followed by a couple of bad BU miscues to trail 17-12. It was all Wesmen from there as they cut the deficit to 2-1.

Brandon went off in the fourth as Watt ripped two kills and Cunha had a kill and a block to lead 7-3. The Bobcats benefited from eight Wesmen hitting errors, including three in a row to make it 14-8 Brandon.

The Wesmen scrapped back on a five-point Thiessen serving run complete with four Bobcats attacking errors to get to 18-17.

It was perfect side-out volleyball for the 13 points as Brandon trusted middles Paycen Warkentin and Lauter in the big moments.

Cunha pounded the winning kill, crosscourt once more.

Watt finished with a team-high 13 kills while Lauter added 12. Thiessen had 23 to lead all scorers but committed 11 errors. Winnipeg had a .210 hitting percentage to Brandon’s .147, mostly due to the lopsided third set.

The Bobcats are on a bus trip home today and will root for the Golden Bears to keep their season alive.

“About as bad as we wanted a win (Friday),” Lauter said, “we’ll be very much hoping Alberta will take that.”

» tfriesen@brandonsun.com

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