BRANDON, Man. – The Brandon Bobcats put up their first perfect weekend of the season with a 3-0 (27-25, 25-21, 25-19) sweep of the Regina Cougars Saturday night at the Brandon University Healthy Living Centre.
The win followed Friday's impressive straight sets performance and gives the Bobcats a modest two-match winning streak as the team heads down the stretch.
"It's really nice especially for our confidence and morale going forward," said fourth-year outside hitter
Rayvn Wiebe.
"It wasn't that long ago that we were swept by U of A, so just moving forward we know we've got some beatable teams ahead of us and so it's just nice to know that we're capable of going 3-0."
The Bobcats kept the Cougars under pressure from the service line for the second straight night.
The two teams were tied 20-20 in the first, but a Brandon time-out led to a side-out, then an ace from
Katie Primeau. Regina answered with three straight points to give the Cougars set point, which Brandon fought off before taking it in extras.
The second was another slugfest - Brandon's largest lead was five points at 19-14 before ending the frame on three straight points.
Trouble on serve receive for the cougars in the third allowed Brandon to jump to a 10-6 lead when Regina called a timeout. That stopped the bleeding only momentarily as Brandon went on another 5-1 run late in the set to seal it.
The Bobcats were led both on offence and defence by Wiebe, who finished with a double-double for the second straight night. The Morden, Man. Product put up 14 kills on 39 attempts to go with a match-high 13 digs.
Jamie Bain ran an efficient offence for Brandon, finishing with 33 assists.
Jessica Lerminiaux had a team-high 14 kills for Regina while Elizabeth Tooth and Sierra Parris-Kruger both contributed 11 digs.
The win moves Brandon's record to 4-12 while Regina falls to 2-14.
Up next Brandon travels to Calgary to take on the Dinos for a weekend set while Regina enjoys a bye weekend before facing provincial rival Saskatchewan on Jan. 24 at home.
