WINNIPEG — The Bobcats pulled off a criticial weekend sweep of the Manitoba Bisons thanks to a 3-1 (27-25, 23-25, 16-25, 21-25) win Saturday night at the U of M’s Investors Group Athletic Centre.
Despite taking the opening set, Manitoba dropped the next three and fell to the Bobcats for a second night in a row. First-year Philipp Lauter paced his Bobcats team with 19 kills in the match.
“We knew we were going to be up against a pretty big battle tonight with them being at home,” said Bobcats head coach Grant Wilson.
Manitoba’s Ben Carleton was the key offensive player in the match for his team, recording a total of 16 kills on 41 attempts in the loss that saw the Bisons’ record fall to 6-8.
“We came out a little sharper than we did yesterday,” said Bisons head coach Arnd Ludwig. “Our focus was there to start but then we gave up that 9-3 run in the second set and that is when things started to go down for us.”
The two teams picked up right where they left off Friday, going back and forth all throughout the first set. Brandon held a 16-11 lead at the technical timeout, but right out of the break the Bisons rattled off five straight points to level the score at 16-16. The teams battled to a 24-24 tie before the hosts eventually took the opening set 27-25.
Halfway through the second set, an electric rally between the two sides was finished off by Carleton to put the Bisons up 15-11. The Bobcats later levelled the score at 20-20 before taking the set 25-23 with a block from Lauter.
The visitors came out and dominated the third set. Holding sizable leads throughout the third, the Bobcats earned a 25-16 set victory through a balanced act with multiple kills coming from Jens Watt, Tom Friesen, Paycen Warkentin and Lauter.
After being down early in the fourth set, the Bisons rallied back to take a 16-15 lead at the technical timeout. From there, the Bobcats found their groove again and went on to take the final set 25-21 and close out the match.
Up next for the Bobcats is a home-and-home series with the Winnipeg Wesmen that starts at the HLC February 17.
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