VANCOUVER - The UBC Thunderbirds dropped their sixth consecutive match falling 3-0 to the Thompson Rivers Wolfpack Friday night at War Memorial Gym by set scores of 25-21, 26-24 and 25-22.
The loss drops the T-Birds to 1-7 on the season and marks the fourth straight match where they were unable to claim a set from their opponents. The Wolfpack out killed the T-Birds 52-33, which head coach
Richard Schick concedes will not win his team many matches.
"Statistically we aren't getting to where we need to win and we know that," said Schick. "We can be happy with the fight we showed tonight but we are still playing too tentative."
The Wolfpack (4-4) were led once again by the powerful swing of Gord Perrin who paced their attack with 22 kills.
Robert Bennett led the T-Birds with 11 kills and
Joe Cordonier had a strong game in the middle collecting six blocks to lead all players.
The first set was tightly contested with UBC grabbing the early lead on a 4-0 run buoyed by two blocks from Cordonier. The teams went point for point with the lead changing hands numerous times. But TRU pieced together a late 3-0 to put them ahead 22-19 forcing UBC into a timeout. Despite the re-group the T-Birds had no answer for the Wolfpack hitters who totaled 19 kills in the opening set. Perrin's sixth kill and a Kevin Tillie block finished the set for the visitors at 25-21.
The middle stanza saw the sides exchange runs with the 'Birds opening with a 5-3 spurt to lead 8-5 at the first technical time out. TRU countered with a 6-0 run thanks to some impressive blocking by Joel Caschetto and led 16-14 at the second break. UBC rallied on the back of some stellar defence by
Blair Bann who dug a sure kill before a Wolfpack error knotted the set at 23-23. Again, the combination of Perrin's attack and Caschetto's defence denied the hosts' effort at taking their first set of the weekend as TRU survived 26-24.
The final frame opened with the 'Pack taking command on the strength of a 5-0 run that had them ahead 8-4 at the first break. Three blocks by
Yari Kozel got the 'Birds within two but the Wolfpack still led 16-14 at the second timeout. From there, Perrin proved too much for the overmatched T-Birds as he collected five of TRU's final seven points including ending the match on a perfectly placed kill down the line.
The Wolfpack look to continue their winning ways when they travel to Winnipeg next weekend. For the Thunderbirds it was their final match of 2009 as they won't see action until January 8th and 9th when they look to end their losing streak on the road against winless Regina.
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