BRANDON, Man. – It took all five sets and a lot of back and forth action but the Brandon Bobcats outlasted the Saskatchewan Huskies 3-2 (25-19, 21-25, 24-26, 25-21, 15-8) in the Canada West home-opener Friday night at the HLC.
 
The Huskies had a strong start on defence that only got stronger as the night wore on while the Bobcats started with a strong serve game that deteriorated at times. But after forcing a fifth and final set, it was all Bobcats as the home side cruised to victory in the final frame.
 
Phillip Lauter led the Bobcats in multiple categories, including kills (14), aces (7), and blocks (5) in his home Canada West debut.
 
"It was great, great fun. First home game is always awesome. I've never played here before so playing in front of the home crowd was quite something," said Lauter following the Weisbaden, Germany product's home debut.
 
"We knew in the timeouts that we got this, let's just make a few less errors and we knew we could play with them and play better so it was a lot of confident in our skill."
 
The Bobcats didn't hit particularly efficiently in the first set, but didn't need to. The team put up seven aces in the first, three from Lauter alone.
 
Saskatchewan had an answer in the second set however, hitting at nearly 10 per cent more efficiently than the Bobcats.
 
The Bobcats dominated from the service line again in the third set but the Huskies made a late surgex, rattling off four straight points and fighting off set point to take it in extras.
 
The Bobcats took control in the fourth and fifth sets however, sending Bobcat Nation home in celebration to conclude the home-opener.
 
To go with Lauter's debut, Jake Fleming had a team-high 41 assists while Max Brook and Joao Cunha both finished with nine digs.
 
The Huskies were led by Levi Olson's team-high 13 kills.
 
The two teams meet again Saturday at the Brandon University Healthy Living Centre to conclude the weekend series.
 
First serve is scheduled for 6:45 pm.