EDMONTON  - A late surge from the Bobcats gave the host University of Alberta Pandas a scare Friday night, but the Pandas held on for a hard-fought win.

With two big comebacks in the fourth set, the No.1 University of Alberta Pandas remain undefeated, taking a 3-1 win (25-17, 25-20, 24-26, 25-23) over the Brandon University Bobcats, Friday night at Saville Community Sports Centre.
 

Fourth-year outside hitter Meg Casault spun a game-high 22 kills in the contest, Kacey Otto and Karly Janssen, also in the same position, adding 12 and 10 kills, respectively. Leading the nation in assists per set, third-year Mariah Walsh recorded 40 in the victory.

 

Senior left side Shanlee McLennan earned a team-high 13 kills in the loss, four players on the squad recording two aces, including McLennan. Sophomore setter Natasha Rupa notched 30 assists.

 

The top-ranked team in the country was true to form to start the match, using a 6-0 run to open up an 8-2 lead on the visitors, but the Bobcats fought back, McLennan spinning three straight kills for Brandon to pull back within one point.

 

Unfortunately for the road team, the Bobcats struggled on their attack in the opening set, helping the Pandas expand their lead and finish the set with an 8-1 run capped off by a Janssen kill to the middle.

 

The second set was a war of attrition, neither team giving their opponent an edge until the Pandas were able to sneak in a 7-2 run after the technical timeout to push themselves to a 2-0 set lead.

 

That momentum carried over into the third set, Alberta taking an 11-5 lead but a Brandon timeout refocused the visitors, also taking advantage of a cold Panda offence to propel an 8-1 run into a tie game at 16.

 

Though the Pandas regained control to get up to match point at 24-21, the attack errors returned, the Pandas finishing at 0% in the third set with an Otto attacking going long to end a 5-0 Bobcat run and put Brandon back in the game.

 

Trying to snap their own losing streak and smelling blood, the Bobcats opened up the fourth with a decent lead, and roared ahead with a 12-4 run to stake themselves a threatening 16-9 lead to potentially extend the match to five sets.

 

Yet Otto and Casault, major components to the third-best kill average in CIS, combined for six kills to fuel a 10-3 run for the home team, knotting the score up at 19.

 

The Bobcats, unrelenting, pushed back as rookie left side Katie Reeves scored Brandon's sixth ace of the set for a 23-21 lead but Casault's kill off the block, followed by Otto's attack through back row defenders and an ill-timed Bobcat net error tied the teams up again.

 

Janssen continued the Alberta run to a 24-23 lead on an attack down the line that just barely stayed in for the point, fourth-year Jodie Baker regrettably completing her opponent's thrilling comeback when the Brandon middle put her cross-court kill wide to end the match.

 

The 11-0 Alberta squad and 3-8 Bobcats will finish the weekend series tomorrow with their final conference game of 2015, the game starting at 6:30 p.m.