Thanks to some big-time blocking and the efforts of
Demijan Savija, the UBC Thunderbirds were able to earn a weekend split with a 3-2 win (25-19, 20-25, 26-28, 25-18, 15-12) over the Winnipeg Wesmen on Saturday night at War Memorial Gym.
After falling behind 2-1, the T-Birds managed to bounce back and force a fifth and deciding set. The UBC block had been huge all night, and it didn't disappoint in the final frame. A big solo block by
Robert Bennett swung the momentum in the home side's favour, and Carey Brett picked a good time to come up with his only block-assist of the night, as he led an effort at the net that made the score 14-12 UBC and set up match point.
It was the T-Bird blockers again taking centre stage on match point, as they were able to stuff Winnipeg's first attack of the rally, and the subsequent Wesmen set-error gave UBC the match.
Andrew Town had 22 kills in the Wesmen's game one victory, but was held to just 10 kills on Saturday to go along with 18 errors and a -.178 hitting percentage.
"Andrew is a great player who does a lot of stuff for that team, but I don't think we really keyed on him too much today," said Schick. "Our guys just did a good job staying disciplined in their blocks and they got him a lot."
UBC outblocked Winnipeg 25.5-8 in the match. Savija led the way with four solo blocks and nine block-assists to go along with an impressive offensive effort as well. He racked up 19 kills on .342 hitting.
"We have had different guys step up on different nights and that is what has to happen since we don't have the star-power of some teams," said Schick. "Tonight it was Demijan. He's got that 'wow-factor' and you saw it tonight with the volume that he can hit and the height that he hits at."
Robert Bennett was featured heavily in the T-Bird attack as well. He had 17 kills on .441 hitting. On the defensive side of the net he led the team with nine digs and had one solo block to go along with four block assists.
Joe Cordonier was a big part of the deadly UBC block, with one solo job and 12 block assists.
Justin Duff had a big night for the Wesmen offensively, with 19 kills and a sparkling .708 hitting percentage.
The first set was tight early on with the two sides deadlocked at 16, but UBC pulled away quickly, finishing the frame on a 9-2 run.
UBC lost it's touch on offence in the second set, hitting just .160 compared to their .306 overall mark. Winnipeg hit .323 in the frame and won comfortably on the strength of seven Duff kills.
The third set looked like it might have killed any UBC momentum, as the 'Birds were edged 28-26 after an intense back-and-forth battle, but they came back strong in the fourth, picking up six blocks and holding Winnipeg to .143 hitting.
"I've seen this team play extremely well and last night just wasn't indicative of that. And tonight wasn't either really, but we just gutted it out," said Schick. "Down 2-1 it would have been easy for us to fold but we didn't and that shows a lot of character which is what we have to do. We are a team that has to gut it out and work hard against everybody."
The T-Birds will be at Trinity Western on October 30 and 31 to take on the Spartans, while Winnipeg will have a bye-week to prepare for their series against defending CIS champions Alberta on November 6 and 7.
