BRANDON - The Brandon Bobcats started the second-half of their Canada West men's volleyball season with a straight sets loss against the visiting Alberta Golden Bears on Friday night.
 
The set scores were 25-22, 25-20 and 25-16.
 
Alex McMullin and Ryan Nikifor supplied a sold 1-2 offensive punch for the fourth-ranked Golden Bears with McMullin getting 13 kills and Nikifor notching 12 kills. With the road victory, Alberta extends their winning streak to five straight, while improving to 9-and-2 on the season.
 
Roy Ching was the top scorer with a match-high 14 kills for the ninth-ranked Bobcats, who slipped to 7-and-4 with the loss.
 
The fans at the Healthy Living Centre were treated to a terrific opening set as both sides battled tooth and nail. The Bobcats gained an early 7-6 advantage, but trailed 16-14 at the technical timeout. The Bears then took a 22-20 lead en route to winning the opener.
 
In the second, Brandon got off to a promising start as they led 6-2. Alberta countered that attack with a 7-1 run to go up 9-7 on the host Bobcats.
 
The Bears had a pair 3-0 runs to pad their lead at 16-12 and 22-17. Alberta would seal up the second set and looked to complete the sweep.
 
The third set was all square at 14-14, before the Bears grabbed major momentum. They outscored the BU men's team by an 11-2 margin to finish off the contest.
 
The Bobcats will look to break the Golden Bears' winning streak and earn the weekend split on Saturday night. The rematch is set for a 6:45 p.m. start the HLC.