BOX SCORE

CALGARY – The Brandon Bobcats looked like a different team Saturday night, and so did the Calgary Dinos – and the end result was a straight-sets Brandon victory (25-22, 26-24, 25-23) to even their best-of-three Canada West Quarterfinal at one game apiece.

The Brandon win sets up a winner-take-all showdown in Game 3 Sunday afternoon for a spot in the Canada West Final Four next weekend in Langley, B.C., along with a berth at the CIS championship hosted by Queen's University in Kingston, Ont.

The Bobcats jumped out to early leads in all three sets, forcing the Dinos to play from behind most of the night. Brandon's passing game improved significantly over Friday night's 3-1 Dinos win, setting up a big night for Bobcats middle Jonathan Sloane. Sloane, the most efficient hitter in Canada West this season, recorded 12 kills on just 15 attempts, adding just one error to connect at a .733 clip. Calgary's passing game, meanwhile, dropped off sharply, forcing the Dinos into tough situations all night.

The Dinos were held to just 14.9 per cent on the attack, while Brandon managed 23.5 per cent. Calgary did hold a slight edge in blocks on the night, with 11.5 compared to 11 for Brandon.

The first set was a sign of things to come, with Brandon taking a quick 6-1 lead before Calgary started to battle back. Calgary would get within two points on two occasions, but the efficient attack of Brandon was too much to overcome as the Bobcats took the 25-22 win.

Set two came down to the wire, with the Bobcats finally emerging victorious 26-24 and fending off a Calgary set point chance in the process with a kill from Sloane. Brandon recorded seven of its 11 blocks in that second set, and an error by Allen Meek ended it in Brandon's favour.

Brandon led virtually wire-to-wire in the third as well, save a brief tie at 19-19. An 8-4 edge early turned into a 25-23 win as the Bobcats sent proceedings to Sunday.

Ben Glue recorded 12 kills on 20 swings for the Bobcats, matching Sloane's total, while Sam Tuivai added seven kills and Paul Robidoux six. Setter Garrett Popplestone recorded a match-high 12 digs for Brandon, while Sloane was a beast at the net as well with his six blocks.

For Calgary, Vigrass had a quiet 15 kills on the night, but his stat line was mitigated by seven errors. Levi Nutma had seven kills and Meek six, while Chris Hoag finished in negative territory while Greg Mann had four errors to balance four kills.

The two teams, which had so little separating them during the season, fittingly head to a third day to decide this series. The rubber match goes Sunday afternoon, with first serve at 2 p.m. MT in the Jack Simpson Gym. CanadaWest.tv will have live streaming coverage.

-UC-