VANCOUVER - The UBC Thunderbirds will be in tough this weekend when they welcome the Alberta Pandas to War Memorial gym for a pair of games Friday and Saturday night. First serve is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. both nights and the games can be seen live on
SportsCanada.tv.
LIVE STATS
A look at the Thunderbirds
The T-Birds will have to bounce back quickly from an 0-2 start to their season, as they go from one ranked opponent to another when they host the no. 3 Alberta Pandas this weekend. The 'Birds are still without the services of All-Canadians
Jen Hinze and
Kyla Richey while they compete with Canada at the FIVB World Championships.
The T-Birds, who are tied for no. 8 in the latest CIS rankings, dropped two matches to Trinity Western on opening weekend, both by scores of 3-1. They had stretches of solid play on both nights, but were hampered by far too many errors, averaging more than 7.5 per set, not including service errors. The 'Birds hit .070 as a team against Trinity Western, which head coach
Doug Reimer says is simply not good enough to win games at the CIS level.
Shanice Marcelle led the team with 3.25 kills-per-game, but also struggled to limit her errors along with the rest of the team. She did have a solid defensive effort though, leading the team with 3.50 digs-per-game. Second-year middle
Jessica von Schilling was the only T-Bird to hit above .100, posting a .161 attacking percentage while averaging just over one kill against the Spartans. She also averaged 1.50 blocks-per-game.
A look at the Pandas
The Pandas were inactive last week, making this their first meaningful CIS action since losing the bronze medal game at nationals last year. They appear to be set for another deep playoff run, as they return almost all of their key players this year, led by Canada West All-Star Tiffany Proudfoot.
Proudfoot leads an experienced group that includes two fifth-year seniors and four fourth-years. Proudfoot, a fifth-year left side hitter, led her team with 3.51 kills-per-game while adding 2.32 digs last season. Jennifer Restall, the other fifth-year player, averaged 2.01 kills and led the team with an average of just under three digs. In just her second year, Krista Zubick was second on the team with 2.31 kills-per-game while leading the squad with 28 aces on the year and just under a block-per-game average, including 19 solo blocks. Setter Jackie Ellis was also a starter as a second-year player last season and still put up good numbers with nearly nine assists-per-game while averaging just under one kill.
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