BRANDON, Man. – The No. 5 nationally ranked Mount Royal Cougars continued their hot play to start the season and return from Brandon with a perfect weekend record after beating the Bobcats 3-0 (25-18, 25-16, 25-17) on Saturday.
 
The Cougars sit firmly atop the Canada West conference standings at 10-0.
 
As the half-way point of the season approaches, the team is enjoying the momentum but also reflecting on how far they've come since this time last year when the team went 5-5 in the first 10 matches.
 
"Coming from last year we started off pretty slow. We went 2-0 and then started splitting most of our games so this is a really big turn-around with the group that we have and it feels great," said Nyadholi Thokbuom of her team's impressive start to the conference season
 
"I feel like we've all been surprising ourselves. It's really rewarding to see us come together on and off the court, so it's helping our streak stay alive."
 
Thokbuom's nine kills were a match-high, as were the four blocks the second-year middle put up in the sweep.
 
Brandon managed just two blocks in the whole match, both of which were solos.
 
Mount Royal looked a lot like Friday, minus one glaring change – they cleaned up the struggles that plagued them in the second set.
 
Brandon on the other hand is looking to learn from the test of playing one of the top teams in the country.
 
"As soon as you get in a negative spiral you're going to be digging yourself a deeper hole," said second-year middle Deserae Unger.
 
"In a situation like now the best thing we can do is just find positives and keep building each other up and keep working."
 
The Bobcats were led by sophomore Shayne Nichols' team-high eight kills. Caitlin Le finished with a match-high 15 digs.
 
Quinn Pelland paced the Cougars offence with 30 assists and also led her team with 10 digs.
 
There's no time to rest for the Cougars as they face a tough test next weekend in the Alberta Pandas. Mount Royal will take on the Pandas in the confines of their home gym with matches on Friday and Saturday.
 
The Bobcats (0-8) will head to Edmonton to take on the MacEwan Griffins next weekend.