VANCOUVER - The UBC Thunderbirds bounced back from a 2-0 hole to pull off a huge comeback win against the Brandon Bobcats, edging the visitors 3-2 (19-25, 22-25, 25-23, 25-23, 15-13) on Friday night at War Memorial Gym.
The fifth set began as a battle between UBC's
Tanner Kozak and Brandon's Paul Sanderson. Kozak kills accounted for four of UBC's first six points in the frame, while Sanderson picked up three of his team's first four.
The Bobcats would eventually build a 12-10 lead until two big
Demijan Savija kills and two Bobcat errors allowed the 'Birds to go up 14-13. Then on match point,
Ian Perry picked up his only dig of the match for the 'Birds, and it extended the rally long enough for rookie outside hitter
Ben Chow to go off the Brandon block to clinch the win for UBC.
"Credit our guys for sticking with it," said UBC head coach
Richard Schick. "We didn't play great the first two sets but we got better throughout the match and it was the first time we have finished a match on a high like that."
Schick's boys struggled to get rolling early on against a much bigger Brandon side. The Bobcats held the T-Birds under .100 hitting in the first set and were easily outblocking them through two, but the home side started to figure things out in the third, when they made just two errors and hit .438 as a team.
"Brandon is a big blocking team and they wanted to get those big 6'9 guys all over our offence, and they were at the start, but you saw Ben on that last play hit not quite over the top, but off the hands and out," said Schick. "We need that from our guys because we don't have the guys who are going to hit over the top and hit sharp angles. We have to be crafty and the guys have to understand that it can be a very important tool."
A rotation error late in the fourth set put the T-Birds down 19-17 and looked like it could have been the edge the Bobcats needed to pull out the win, but two Chow kills and a huge block on Sanderson by
Cary Brett and
Tanner Kozak shifted the momentum back to UBC's side.
Savija led the T-Birds with 22 kills on .327 hitting. Middle
Joe Cordonier had a monster game offensively with 11 kills on just 14 attacks. Chow finished with 14 kills and
Blair Bann padded his Canada West digs lead with another 22 on the night.
Sanderson paced the Bobcats offence with 22 kills and three aces. He is now 21 kills and seven aces away from tying Canada West career records in those categories. He also led his team with 13 digs on Friday.
UBC leapfrogs Brandon in the standings with this win, improving to 5-8, but the Bobcats have two games in-hand at 4-7 on the season. The two sides will wrap up their weekend series and Sanderson will shoot for the record books on Saturday night beginning at 8 p.m.
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