The University of Regina's women's volleyball team scored a wild five-set come-from-behind win over the Brandon Bobcats on Saturday night at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.
Saturday's match marked the second consecutive night that Brandon scored comfortable wins in the opening two sets, only to have the Cougars roar back to take the third and fourth to force a deciding set.
But, unlike Friday, this time it was the Cougars coming away victorious in that fifth frame.
The Cougars jumped out to an early 4-0 lead in that deciding set with
Claire Sheppard on serve, then got aces from two substitutes after the side switch as
McKenzie Keibel and
Jordy McEachern both scored big points immediately after checking in for the Cougars.
Nya Chiek lifted the Cougars late, teaming up for a block with
Devyn Grimsrud to set up match point and then clinching the win with a big cross-court kill.
"We had really good contributions up and down the lineup to make it happen today," Cougars head coach
Melanie Sanford said. "To be in the exact same situation as last night but get the result tonight, it's obvious that this young group learned a lot this weekend."
Starting setter
Annika Hufnagel was injured in the second set and didn't return, which brought rookie
Cassadi Klapak off the bench in her place. Klapak ended up with 31 assists and five digs in the win.
"Cass is a talented athlete who can play more than one position on the court," Sanford said. "When (Hufnagel) got hurt, I threw Cass in there and she did a great job out there for us."
Jessica Lerminiaux led the Cougars with 15 kills while rookie
Bailey Balaberda came off the bench to register a double-double with 11 kills and 16 digs. Regina libero
Sierra Parris-Kruger led all players with 17 digs and Grimsrud led the way at the net with a match-leading nine blocks.
Brandon (2-2) was led offensively by Rayvn Wiebe, who had a match-high 18 kills for the Bobcats. Taryn Hannah (10 kills, 13 digs) and Jamie Bain (39 assists, 13 digs) both had double-doubles while libero Caitlin Le had a team-leading 16 digs.
This weekend marked the only home matches of the calendar year for the Cougars, who are now 1-3 and will have two weekends off to prepare for a road series at Manitoba on Dec. 3 and Dec. 4.
Brandon will also have next weekend off before returning to action on Nov. 26 and Nov. 27 with home games against Manitoba.
