VANCOUVER -
Liz Cordonier and
Nicky Osborne combined for half their teams kills in leading the UBC Thunderbirds passed the Thompson Rivers Wolfpack 3-0 Friday evening at War Memorial Gym by set scores of 25-21, 25-12 and 25-21.
The three set sweep keeps the T-Birds' start to the season perfect at 7-0 while the Wolfpack are still in search of their first win as they fall to 0-7.
Cordonier's 16 kills tied a season high and led all attackers, while Osborne, who registered a season-high nine kills, notched more kills in the second set (six) than in her previous five matches. Defensively the T-Birds were charged with slowing down Thompson Rivers' potent duo of Anna Dyakiewicz and Amanda Frayne.
"We did a good job of stopping Anna and Amanda, which helped us get the win," said UBC head coach
Doug Reimer. "TRU is a good team and they play tough defence making them a difficult team to play against."
The first set went back and forth with neither side able to put together an extended run but the T-Birds did hold a two point advantage at both technical timeouts. The Thunderbirds managed to widen the gap to four before back to back kills by Cordonier had the T-Birds ahead 22-16. A TRU time out seemed to do some good as late push had the visitors within three before
Shanice Marcelle closed out the set with a cross court kill.
The Thunderbirds took command in the second set from the get go establishing an 8-4 lead. Osborne then took over registering three consecutive kills to stake the home side to a 16-7 lead at the second break. The T-Birds displayed some depth late in the set piecing together a 6-1 run and getting kills from five different attackers in the process.
The final set seemed to mirror the second in the early going with UBC jumping out to a 5-2 lead thanks on the strength of a 4-1 run. But the Wolfpack showed some resiliency with a 4-1 run of their own to knot the match at six all. The T-Birds seemed to regain command with another 4-1 run but UBC errors allowed TRU to take the lead at 14-12.
The lead would not last long as back-to-back kills by Cordonier and Marcelle along with an ace from Osborne had the 'Birds ahead 16-14 at the final break. Thompson Rivers errors then gave the 'Birds a five point lead and enough of a cushion to close out the match.
Saturday night sees the two squads meeting again at War Memorial. Game time is 6:00 p.m.
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