It was a historic day for the Brock Badgers women's volleyball team as they won a U SPORTS national championship quarterfinal for the first time.
The Brock fans who travelled witnessed a commanding performance as the No. 3 seed Badgers defeated the No. 6 seed Saint Mary's Huskies 3-0 (25-19, 25-22, 25-18) at the Langley Events Centre in Langley, B.C., on Friday, March 13.
"It's a great win for our program," said head coach Steve Delaney. "It starts in September knowing you've got to win the conference to get there, and that was the goal from the beginning. Once we did that, we had to reset and make sure we were on point because there are no easy games here no matter what your draw is."
Mackenna Knox was named the Mikasa Team Player of the Game after delivering a game-high 36 assists and nine digs.
"We go where she goes," Delaney said. "She's one of the top setters in the country. We counted on her to come through in big moments for us and she did."
Three Badgers finished in double-digits points as Emily Foest led the game with 16.5 from 14 kills, one service ace and 1.5 blocks, while Emma Baruchelli and Charlotte Ross notched 13 and 11, respectively.
"We wanted to play 'Badger Ball'," Foest said. "It's playing as one. We like to say we play for each other, and that embodies what 'Badger Ball' is about."
The first set saw both teams looking to settle the nerves of their first match of the championship as neither team took a lead larger than two until Foest earned three kills during a 4-0 run that helped the Badgers take a 20-16 advantage.
Winning the frame 25-19, Brock held Saint Mary's to a -.032 hitting percentage and played sensational defence, delivering 21 digs to just 8 from their opposition.
The second set was defined by the service line as Baruchelli helped elevate Brock to a 6-0 run with three aces. The Badgers recorded four in the set while Saint Mary's led the category with six.
Despite relentless pressure from the Huskies, who tied the match at 17-17, the Badgers continued to hold their nerve, taking advantage of opposition attack errors and strong attacking from Baruchelli, who racked up two kills late to help seal the frame 25-22.
"Our serve and pass game is important, and I think we did a really good job of that tonight," Knox said. "We know that when we're in system, we're really effective. We have really good passers and really good hitters, so it makes my job easy."
Saint Mary's looked to take control of the third as they raced out to an 8-5 lead, but Ross helped flip the momentum with serving that produced two aces and two Huskies' attack errors, giving the Badgers an 11-9 advantage.
That forced a timeout from the Huskies, and from that moment onward the Badgers scored 14 of the next 23 points. They finished the set with their highest hitting percentage of the night at .250, cruising to a 25-18 victory.
The Badgers' defence forced the Huskies into more attack errors than kills as they finished with a -.020 hitting percentage. Brock also outpaced Saint Mary's in blocks 10-6 and digs 52-36 in the victory.
With the win, the Badgers are set to face the No. 2 seed Sherbrooke Vert & Or in the second semifinal scheduled for 8 p.m. Watch all the action on the CBC Sports YouTube channel and on CBC Gem.
"We're going to enjoy this for about 10 minutes and get back to work," Delaney said. "We got to hydrate, eat and get some sleep and be ready to execute the match plan against Sherbrooke."
