Files from U of C Sports Information
CALGARY – The UBC Thunderbirds fells victim to a sensational night from Calgary middle Graham Vigrass who put up 23 kills – but it was his last, and his most unspectacular, that finally put the finishing touches on a tight 3-2 victory on Friday night in the Jack Simpson Gym (25-27, 25-18, 25-18, 22-25, 15-8).
Vigrass, the 2010 CIS championship MVP, finally ended a marathon night of volleyball at 11:01 p.m. by pouncing on a loose ball as the teams scrambled on both sides of the court. The 15-8 fifth set win improved Calgary's conference record to 9-0 on the season while UBC fell to 4-7 with the loss.
The T-Birds fell behind early in the fifth set following the pattern that saw Calgary emerge with comfortable margins in the three sets they won while UBC capitalized on the Dinos' shaky serve receive in the first and fourth sets. A 27-25 UBC win in the first gave way to back-to-back 25-18 wins for the Dinos before the Thunderbirds responded 25-22 in the fourth.
"We just seem to start sets too slow. We dug ourselves too big of a hole and the great teams will put you away," said UBC head coach
Richard Schick. "We have to start a bit tougher but we did finish the match better than we started, which is a good sign."
Vigrass committed four errors on the night, and all four came in the first set. After that, he went 18-for-23 from the middle, finishing the night with 23 kills and a .500 attack efficiency. Calgary's other middles also saw success, with David Egan connecting for nine kills on just 13 attempts while Patrick Lenaour went 2-for-3 in relief of Vigrass during the second set.
The Thunderbirds, who battled back several times on the night, got a sterling performance from
Demijan Savija with 18 kills in a losing cause. Savija matched Vigrass kill-for-kill during the first four sets and was key to UBC's fourth-set victory.
Ben Chow, who came on in relief later in the match, followed up with nine kills while
Cary Brett added seven.
Blair Bann, the reigning CIS libero of the year, gathered 20 digs – better than half his team's total.
"Demijan had an outstanding match today and was really solid for us all night long. Blair is just unbelievable night in and night out. He's a real leader out there for us and he does so many things so well," added Schick.
First serve for the rematch is slated for 7:00 p.m. PST Saturday night.
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