BRANDON, Man. – The Brandon Bobcats couldn't have picked a better time for their first straight sets win of the conference season.
In what was essentially a must-win match for both teams, the Bobcats served tough and played scrappy defence to beat the Regina Cougars 3-0 (25-20, 25-15, 25-23) Friday night.
While Both teams entered Friday's action coming off with losing streaks and sharing identical 2-12 records, it was no secret that both teams wanted this one.
"We're feeling really up right now but not long because we need to do the same thing tomorrow," said
Deserae Unger
Unger credited the Bobcats' side-out with earning the win.
"As soon as we lost the ball we found a way and we made changes right away. We had that strictly business attitude and we found a way to get the ball back"
The two teams had nearly identical stat lines in the first, but Brandon didn't miss a serve in the set.
The Bobcats jumped to an early lead in the first forcing Regina to call a time-out trailing 10-5. Brandon kept the Cougars under pressure from the service line, running to a 16-11 before Regina answered with tough serves of their own from Kirstin Greve and Britt Davis to trim the deficit to two at 19-21. That was as close as the Cougars would get.
The Bobcats went right back to work in the second set, using tough serves to lead the entire set.
The Cougars held Brandon to within three points for most of the third, but a 3-1 run broke a 22-22 tie to give Brandon the set and the match.
The Bobcats were led by fourth-year outside
Rayvn Wiebe's double-double, which included match-highs in kills (10) and digs (12). Sophomore outside
Katie Primeau was named player of the match for her seven kills and match-high four aces.
Regina was led by Jessica Lerminiaux who put up a team-high eight kills.
While the win helps move Brandon up in the standings, it's still a long road to make the playoffs. The Bobcats sit with a record of 3-12 while Regina is 2-13.
The two teams meet again Saturday afternoon in Brandon. First serve is set for 5 p.m.
