BRANDON - The Brandon Bobcats had their way with the UBC Thunderbirds Saturday night as the nation's seventh ranked team swept passed their west coast visitors by set scores of 25-21, 25-19, 25-12 at Brandon University Gym.
The T-Birds weren't able to mount much offence hitting only .095 in the match and had no answer for the heavy hand of Australian outside hitter Paul Sanderson who punished UBC for 16 kills.
Riley McFarland led the 'Birds with 7 kills.
Three kills by Sanderson and a trio of T-Bird errors had Brandon ahead 8-2 at the first technical timeout. UBC trailed 16-7 at the second break and then inched closer down the stretch as the Bobcat attack fell out of sync committing 7 errors to bring the score to 23-20. The hosts then composed themselves and two kills by Dan Ashfield put an end to an eventful first set.
The second frame saw a similar start with the Bobcats jumping out to an early 8-3 lead thanks in part to three more UBC errors. The best the T-Birds could do in the set was trade points as they were unable to count more than twice consecutively eventually falling 25-19.
The third set was all business for Brandon as yet another early run had them leading 8-2 at the first technical. Three kills by middle Jonathan Sloane helped the 'Cats extend their lead to 16-8. Brandon then closed out the match on a 9-4 run fittingly finished by two more UBC attack errors.
The loss drops UBC to 3-9 on the season while Brandon improves to 7-3. The Thunderbirds will look to rebound from two rough matches in the prairies as they host the Calgary Dinos next weekend, January 22nd and 23rd, game time is scheduled for 8:00 p.m. on both nights.
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