Files from U of A Sports Information
EDMONTON - For the second night in a row, the no. 3 University of Alberta Golden Bears earned a straight-sets win (25-20, 25-21, 25-16) against the UBC Thunderbirds to sweep the weekend series, with senior left side Thomas Jarmoc leading the Bears to victory.
Finishing the season at 14-4 and having a “bye” next weekend, Alberta must wait for the 11-4 Calgary Dinos to finish their remaining three games for playoff positioning to finalize. A single loss by Calgary guarantees first place for the Evergreen and Gold, but the post-season is still ahead for the team looking to three-peat at nationals.
Jarmoc, a Calgary native, capped off his conference play and final regular season match at home, getting a game-high 12 kills and finishing the match with his 567th kill of his five-year stint in Alberta silks.
Seniors Mike DeRocco and Simon Lidster also had great final nights with DeRocco putting up 32 assists to lead all players while Lidster notched tops in blocks with 4.5 to go with three digs.
Just as the night before, service errors were the story in the opening set, with the Bears committing seven to the T-Birds four, but UBC was outdone by their own attacks, mustering a 5.3% rating and only six kills.
Outside hitter
Tanner Kozak helped the visitors improve in the middle set by putting five kills on the scoreboard for the T-Birds, including the one that knotted the score up at 17-17, but attack errors continued to overwhelm their offensive efforts. Alberta recovered and took the second frame with an 8-4 run.
An early 8-1 run in the final set by the Bears put UBC down by six and the T-Birds could not cut the deficit under three before Jarmoc ended the night's match.
Kozak and setter
Ryan Zwarich finished the 4-14 T-birds' final game of the season with team-highs of eight kills and 19 assists, respectively.
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