EDMONTON – The Bobcats season is over and they are coming home with the Canada West bronze medal after defeating the UBC Thunderbirds in straight sets 3-0 (25-23, 25-16, 25-18) Saturday.

After Friday's heartbreaking loss to the Trinity Western Spartans, the Bobcats chances of going to Nationals next weekend in Saskatoon were eliminated. The 'Cats came to play Saturday, playing for pride and to send four graduating players off with a win.

The Thunderbirds managed to keep pace with the Bobcats for the first set, never down by more than two points. At the technical time out the Bobcats led 16-15. Coming out of the break the 'Cats never let up, winning the first 25-23.

The second set was all Bobcats as they came out firing and jumped to an early 6-2 lead before the Thunderbirds called their first time out. That didn't seem to phase the 'Cats though, serving at a season best, only having three service errors en route to a 25-16 set win.

The third set started much like the first, the Bobcats and Thunderbirds trading kills before the 'Cats went on a 4-1 run to lead 10-7. From there the Bobcats never let up, striking early and often until the technical time out where they led 16-10. The Thunderbirds never recovered from being down by six; the Bobcats offence kept rolling and got the win 25-18 to capture the Canada West Bronze Medal.

Playing in his final match as a Bobcat, Steigmeier led the Bobcats offence with 14 kills, two service aces and also led the defence with 15 digs and one block. Also concluding his career, Tuivai chipped in with 12 kills, one assist, five digs and four blocks, while fellow grad Jones had nine kills, four assists, four blocks and two digs.

David Stasics had two kills, 34 assists, eight digs and two blocks. Jeremy Davies finished with 11 digs and one assist. Brendan White finished his career as a Bobcat with two kills, one assist, one service ace, three digs and four blocks.

The Thunderbirds were led by McNicol who had 11 kills, one service ace, five digs and one block while Brar got six kills and six digs.  

Although playing in the bronze medal match was not where the Bobcats wanted to be, head coach Grant Wilson was proud of his team's performance.

"We were disappointed to be in this match today but I'm pleased that we came focused and motivated and I'm thankful that we were able to win, I felt yesterday, we lost our focus and weren't able to recover. Today it was just a matter of staying loose and having fun because the pressure was off, it was a matter of going out, having fun and playing the way we were capable of and we were able to do that," says Wilson.

Looking back on the season, and career, White looked back not only on the match, but his career as a Bobcat.

"We couldn't have asked for a better season in league play, we kind of stumbled in the post-season and it's hard to put into words what exactly went wrong there but it's nice to finish it off on a win, for us (speaking for all graduating players) leaving the program, I can honestly say we have enjoyed every single part of it and hopeful that the program continues to prosper and get better as the years go on," says White.

Those sentiments were echoed by fellow grad Frank Jones.

"I enjoyed all three years I had here, the community of Brandon and how they welcomed me and brought me in as family," said Jones, following his final game in Bobcat blue and gold.

While the Bobcats season may be over, there is still one week left in CIS play with Nationals going next weekend in Saskatoon, SK.