EDMONTON - The No.1-ranked UBC Thunderbirds continued to show resiliency on the road as they came from behind to take their fourth five-set road victory as they defeated the No.7 Alberta Pandas 3-2 Friday night at U of A's Main Gym by set scores of 25-19, 22-25, 22-25, 25-19, 15-7.
"It was a solid come from behind effort tonight," said UBC head coach Dough Reimer. "We had a great start and played a very good first set but then we kind of lost our focus. The girls regrouped and we played really well in the final two sets."
After falling behind two sets to one the 'Birds rallied back to take the fourth set, which they trailed as many as four at the first technical time out before rallying with 12 of the next 16 points. With the momentum on their side and some timely kills from
Kyla Richey the 'Birds were able to even the match at two apiece.
In the final game UBC gave further evidence as to why they are the nation's top team as they took an 8-4 lead at the changeover before
Rayel Quiring's superb serving propelled a 7-3 run punctuated by one final kill from Richey to complete the comeback.
"We mixed up the line-ups a bit but that really helped us tonight," added Reimer. "Both Dannie [Richards] and Rayel [Quiring] made solid contributions and Katie made very good choices to open up things offensively, especially in the middle."
The first set saw the T-Birds race out to an early 8-2 advantage thanks to a pair of kills from
Liz Cordonier and
Nicky Osborne. The T-Birds would hold a steady lead throughout the set, never leading by fewer than four points. Cordonier was strong down the stretch collecting another two kills in the final five points and would finish the night with a match high-17 points.
The Thunderbirds fell out of rhythym over the next two sets dropping each by identical 25-22 scores. UBC led by as many as three in the second set and were tied at 22 but were unable to close out the set as Alberta claimed the final three points. The third frame began in a similar fashion with the T-Birds leading early but the Pandas crawled back into the came on Krista Zubick's serve and some sloppy UBC attacking.
The fourth set seemed to be going a similar way before the and two-time defending champions composed themselves and ignited their comeback on their way to maintaining their pristine 18-0 record.
These two squads will continue their battle again Saturday night with game time schedule for 7:00 PST.
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