The UBC Okanagan Heat women’s volleyball team won their third straight match on the road tonight when they defeated the Brandon Bobcats. Play again tomorrow at 3 p.m. (PST)
Women’s Volleyball (Canada West conference match)
Saturday, November 21st, 2015
HLC, Brandon, MB
SET SCORES 1 2 3 TEAM RECORDS UBC Okanagan........ (3) 25 25 25 9-1 Brandon............. (0) 19 7 18 3-7
BRANDON –The UBC Okanagan Heat picked up a straight sets win over the Brandon University Bobcats, living up their #3 national ranking. In Saturday’s rematch, UBCO took in straight sets 3-0 (25-19, 25-7, 25-18).
The Bobcats kept pace with the Heat in the early stages of the first set, trading blows until 11-10, where the Heat took over and capitalized on some miscommunication from the home team.
Brandon struggled to find rhythm in the second set, and UBC Okanagan demonstrated why they’re one of the top ranked teams in the country. After starting the set with a 6-3 lead, the Heat went on a 10-0 run.
The Bobcat’s rookie left side Katie Reeves and sophomore setter Natasha Rupa started the third set for the U of B and provided some spark, as they had a slight lead at 7-6 until the Heat had three consecutive kills giving them a lead they would not relinquish.
Brianna Beamish led UBC Okanagan with nine kills on 24 attacks and one ace. Siobhan Fitzpatrick had an excellent effort, recording nine kills on 23 swings. Emily Oxland had a match-high 30 assists, while Kailin Jones had 13 digs and Michelle Jakszuk finished with 12 digs.
The leading attacker on the night, Beamish, stated “Brandon is a tough team and we knew that they would give us a good battle this weekend. We wanted to come into this weekend and continue to focus on improving the little things that we have been working on for the last several weeks. We did a really good job of accomplishing our goals and we played very good as a team. It’s never easy coming into someone else’s gym, so we are really happy with this weekends result!”
The Bobcat’s Nikki Majewski had five kills and two aces, while Donata Huebert had a match-high 16 digs. Breanne Sytnyk finished with five blocks.
Fifth year, liberio Jones stated that she was “really happy coming away with two wins this weekend. The Bobcats always play well against us, and we’ve had a lot of great battles in their gym. Our team’s depth showed this weekend, especially from Siobhan Fitzpatrick. I’m really excited to see where our team goes this season.”
The red hot Heat improve to a 9-1 start. Catch the UBC Okanagan for a home and home series next week against the Thompson Rivers WolfPack, (Nov. 26th and 28th) at 6 p.m. PST and 5 p.m. PST. The Brandon University Bobcats are now (3-7) and have a bye next weekend, before heading to the University of Alberta for a pair of matches on December 4 and 5.
Heat Notes:
Fifth year, middle, Katy Klomps had this to say about the night:
“That was a really great win for us and we really worked hard. We are all physically tired and fought hard throughout the whole game. It was a total team effort.”
Third year, outside hitter, Jakszuk thought:
“With Brandon being a very strong team, they really forced us to focus at crucial times. Some of our starters weren’t on the trip or weren’t 100% health wise, so we played a whole different lineup. Steve has done a good job at mixing it up at practice which has definitely given us some confidence for situations like this.”
On last nights match, Siobhan:
Brandon came out tough on offence and put up a very impressive fight. I’m very proud of the team for maintaining focus and playing aggressively throughout the whole match. We saw some new people on the floor this weekend and everyone really stepped up. I think we showed a lot of heart tonight.
~ With notes from Matt Packwood // Brandon University communications