The Badgers certainly made things interesting in their semi-final victory over Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Bold on March 1st.
After handing the first two sets to the visiting Bold after some lacklustre play, Brock surged back to win the next three sets, completing a reverse-sweep and moving on to the Quigley Cup, where they’ll have a chance to defend their provincial title.
Set one started close, but after giving up six straight to go down 16-10, the score soon got away from them. TMU pushed on against a floundering Badgers side, stretching the score to 20-11.
Brock couldn’t recover and dropped set one 25-16. It was only the second time that the Badgers had lost a set by nine or more points this season. It was also only the 14th set they’d lost all season, now playing their 24th game including the regular season and playoffs.
Set two was different but no better. Brock was right there with the Bold in the first half but fell apart after tying the game at 12. TMU went on an 8-1 run to put the Badgers on their heels and cruised to the finish line, again winning 25-16.
At this point in the season, the Badgers had not once been beaten this resoundingly in two straight sets. Even in their 1-3 loss to McMaster, Brock lost their three sets by a combined 15 points while TMU managed to outscore the Badgers by 18 points in only two sets.
Brock now found themselves in uncharted territory. The Badgers had never been down 0-2 at any point this season and now had to chart these unfamiliar waters with their season hanging in the balance. This intensity took itself up a notch with Brock and TMU again tied 12-12.
Looking destined for a repeat of set two, the Bold went on a 4-0 run to go up 16-12. Not willing to be counted out, this time the Badgers went on a 4-0 run of their own, tying the game again at 16.
From there on, the two teams could do little to separate from the other. TMU would go up by a point or two, only to immediately be matched by Brock. The Badgers tied the game at 22 not once having secured a lead while the Bold had never gone up by more than two.
However, for the first time since taking an 11-10 lead early in the set, Brock turned the tables on TMU, as Laurin Ainsworth punched in two straight kills to go ahead 24-22. Sadie Dick put the finishing touches on the set with a kill, winning 25-22 and staving off elimination.
Finally shaking off whatever playoff jitters they had come into the game with, the Badgers turned up the heat in the fourth set.
Tied 5-5, a 5-1 Brock scoring run forced a TMU timeout. The pause in play did nothing to sway the momentum out of Brock’s favour as they followed this up with another 5-1 run, now leading 15-7.
While TMU had been dominant in the opening two sets, both times leaving with hitting percentages north of .400, they couldn’t do much of anything right in set four. Though Brock recorded their second-lowest kill total of the game in set four (seven), the Bold gave up 11 errors on 30 attempts, also with only seven kills of their own to show for it.
As a result, nothing much changed after Brock took their eight-point lead. Closing the set with two more TMU errors, Brock took set four 25-13, tying a frenetic game 2-2.
Now having forced the Bold into a playoff set, the Badgers took no prisoners. Three errors immediately gave Brock a 4-1 lead, a deficit TMU never recovered from. The Bold made things somewhat interesting, bringing themselves within two down 6-4, but the Badgers immediately wiped out all hope of a comeback, going on an 8-1 run to take a 14-5 lead. Brock only needed one point to win and secured it thanks to a TMU service error.
After putting the Badgers on the ropes through three strong sets, the Bold’s collapse was total and unceremonious. In the first three sets, TMU surrendered a measly seven errors on 99 attempts while the Badgers gave up seven errors in each of the first two sets alone. In their next 46 attempts, the Bold gave up an eye-popping 17 errors while collecting only 12 combined kills.
In an all-around effort from the Badgers’ corps, Emily Foest was the standout performer, leading the team in both kills (14) and digs (18) while also adding two aces and an assist for good measure.
Brock will hold home-court advantage on Friday, March 8th as they play host to the McMaster Marauders in their Quigley Cup title defence. Though they were the third seed, the Marauders could pose a challenge as they are one of only two teams this season to hand the Badgers a loss.
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