VANCOUVER - After falling behind 2-0, the UBC Thunderbirds battled all the way back to force a fifth set, but still fell 3-2 (25-19, 25-21, 22-25, 24-26, 18-20) to the Manitoba Bisons on Friday night at War Memorial Gym.
The T-Birds led by as many as three points early in the fifth set, but Dane Pischke and the Bisons fought back to retake the lead and set up their first of four match-point opportunities. The 'Birds survived the first three, and even had two chances of their own to complete the improbable comeback, but finally ran out of gas when
Demijan Savija's ball missed the line by inches to give Manitoba the win.
"We're laying a lot out there with our defence and blocking but if we don't transition those balls into points, which we had a lot of opportunities to do, we don't see the rewards," said UBC head coach
Richard Schick. "It doesn't matter how hard you fight. You still have to put the ball down in the end and we didn't do that."
Pischke led the Bisons with 16 kills, including five in the final set. He also had two solo blocks and five block-assists to lead a big effort at the net by the Bisons. Manitoba wound up with 15 blocks on the night.
The first set was all Bisons, as the T-Birds had no answer for Pischke, who had seven kills on eight attacks in the frame. The UBC defence didn't really get going until the third and fourth sets, when they held the Bisons to hitting percentages of .087 and -.065 respectively.
The T-Birds had some great plays all over the court on Friday, but struggled to cope with frequent untimely mistakes.
"We need better overall consistency in the game, from serve-receive to attacking," said Schick. "We're not as crisp as we have to be to compete at this level. It's frustrating because we make such good plays, but we're not rewarding ourselves in the end."
Savija led all players with 19 kills , while also chipping in 14 digs.
Joe Cordonier had eight kills on .412 hitting to go along with seven block-assists. Dig-machine
Blair Bann was at it again, racking up yet another game-high of 27 digs.
The win vaults Manitoba into a tie with Saskatchewan for the seventh and final Canada West playoff spot at 6-8. The T-Birds, however, saw their playoff hopes take a serious blow, as they will now likely have to win each of their final three games to make the postseason. They are currently two games back of Manitoba and Saskatchewan at 4-11.
The 'Birds and Bisons will finish their weekend series on Saturday night at War Memorial Gym. The action begins at 8 p.m.
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