BRANDON - The Brandon Bobcats earned a hard fought four-set win over the MacEwan Griffins on Saturday night at the Healthy Living Centre to close out their 2015-2016 Canada West men's volleyball season.
 
The set scores were 25-16, 28-26, 30-32 and 25-17.
 
The Bobcats got the Griffins behind the eight ball by winning the first two sets, but reaching that result was not easy.
 
After winning the first, Brandon trailed 23-17 in the second set before battling back to secure it, which included staving off three set points to win in extras.
 
MacEwan remained motivated to spoil the party on senior's night and avoided the sweep by taking the third set in marathon style after saving several match points.
 
The Bobcats were also dealt some major adversity with graduating fifth-year setter David Stasica suffering an injury in the third set and being forced to the sidelines.
 
Rookie Reece Dixon stepped in the rest of the way and the Bobcats would persevere.
 
Brandon got behind 8-5 in the fourth set, but chipped away at that deficit and led 16-13 at the technical timeout.
 
The Bobcats then took nine of the next 13 points to cap off their campaign with back-to-back wins over the Griffins.
 
Stasica finished with 44 assists in the final match of his career, while Dixon delivered 14 assists as the Bobcats provided a solid sendoff for their co-captain.
 
"When Dave went down it was obviously a tough moment for him because this is his last hurrah," said Dixon. "The guys all got behind him and said 'lets do it for Dave. This is our last moment for Dave and lets get it done'."
 
Roy Ching led the charge with 25 kills and five aces for the Bobcats, with both being match-highs.
 
Liam Matheson was next with 15 kills and Brady Nault notched a match-high 13 digs as Brandon finished their regular season with a record of 7-and-17.
 
Ryan McDonald had 17 kills and Shane Kerrison was next with 16 kills as MacEwan finished with a mark of 3-and-21.
 
The Griffins also got match-highs from Matt Mohler with 52 assists and Max Vriend had eight blocks.
 
Both Brandon and MacEwan will miss the Canada West playoffs with the quarter-finals set to start this coming weekend.