BRANDON, Man. – The Brandon Bobcats picked up a weekend sweep over the UBC-Okanagan Heat with a 3-1 (12-25, 25-15, 25-17, 25-22) win Saturday.
 
The win follows Friday's five-set marathon and sends the Bobcats into the December break with optimism after struggling early in the conference season.
 
"We want to work so hard for each other. We are a Bobcats team that is resilient, and we wanted to play like how we do in practice. We wanted to win this one so bad," said third-year outside Nicole Ashauer of Brandon's drive.
 
Saturday's match shared plenty of similarities to the night before, the biggest difference being that the Bobcats were able to end the match in the fourth by keeping the Heat away from the service line late in the frame.
 
The first set was all Heat, doubling Brandon's block total and hitting .321 as a team to Brandon's -.103.
 
Brandon cleaned up the passing game in the second set, hitting .290 as a team, and held the Heat to just .147.
 
The third and fourth sets were much the sam as tough serves from the Bobcats held the Heat at bay.
 
The sweep is not only important for Brandon's record (2-10) but also momentum as they enter the December break.
 
"It's definitely a great way to end the first half," said Bobcats' setter Jamie Bain.
 
"We all needed it. Before we were in a bit of a rut, now we know we're capable of winning."
 
Bain finished with a match-high 36 assists in pacing the Bobcats to victory.
 
Rayvn Wiebe led Brandon with 12 kills while Ashauer wasn't far behind with 10.
 
Shayne Nichols finished just shy of a double-double with eight kills and 10 digs.
 
The Heat were led by Hellen Lacava's team-high 12 kills while Claudia Corneil had a match-high 13 digs.
 
The two teams now enter the December break before resuming in the New Year. Brandon's first action in 2020 comes on home court on January 3 against the Alberta Pandas while the Heat welcome the Winnipeg Wesmen on January 10.