VANCOUVER - The No. 1 UBC Thunderbirds are the only unbeaten team left in the conference, and will look to keep it that way as they finish off the home portion of their first half schedule this week against Calgary. Make sure to join the T-Birds on Saturday, Nov. 26 as they will raise their 2010-11 CIS National Championship banner at War Memorial Gym.
GAME TIMES
Fri., Nov. 25 - Calgary at No. 1 UBC (6:00 p.m. at War Memorial Gym, Vancouver)
Sat., Nov. 26 - Calgary at No. 1 UBC (6:00 p.m. at War Memorial Gym, Vancouver)
No. 1 UBC Thunderbirds
2011 conference record: 6-0 (1st)
2011 CIS ranking: 1
Last week: beat Saskatchewan 3-0, 3-0
Streak: 6 wins
UBC has now won 10 straight sets after a pair of 3-0 victories over Saskatchewan last weekend, and are looking strong on top of the Canada West standings as the conference's only remaining unbeaten team. The T-Birds lead the conference in hitting percentage, opponent hitting percentage, blocking and service aces, so if the four-time defending national champs have a weakness, it has yet to show itself.
National team outside hitter
Kyla Richey leads UBC with 3.17 kills per game. Sophomore hitter
Lisa Barclay isn't far behind with three kills on the dot, and she also leads the team in efficiency with a .347 hitting percentage.
The blockers have been the real stars of the show early in the season though.
Mariah Bruinsma leads the team and the conference with 1.79 blocks per game.
Abbey Keeping is second in the conference with 1.47, and Rayel Quirring is fourth with 1.12
Even non-middles like setter
Brina Derksen-Bergen and hitters Barclay and Richey are all near an average of one block per game. And all that has happened without the services of
Jessica von Schilling, who was second in the conference in blocks as a rookie and led the league last year in an injury-shortened season. She finally made her return from that injury last week, as if the T-Bird block needed to get any tougher.
Calgary Dinos
2011 conference record: 4-4 (6th)
2011 CIS ranking: -
Last week: beat Brandon 3-0, 3-1
Streak: 2 wins
The Dinos got back on track last weekend with an efficient sweep of Brandon, after having gone 1-4 in their previous five games. A well-balanced effort got them a 3-0 win in game one, and Andrea Price's 17 kills on .333 hitting helped them win game two 3-1.
That could be an important breakout performance from Price, who is a big part of the Dinos offence but had been struggling with her efficiency all year before that match.
She is one of six Dinos with at least two kills per game, and still has the lowest hitting percentage of the six, but appears headed in the right direction. Lindsay Dolan leads the way with 2.84 kills. Ali Sandholm is hitting near .300 while also averaging over two kills per game.
Emma Pedersen and Melanie Miazaga lead fight at the net for Calgary, combining for about 2.5 blocks per game.
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