VANCOUVER - The UBC Thunderbirds had to settle for a split in their series with the Calgary Dinos, losing game two 3-0 (25-16, 25-22, 27-25) in their last home match before the semester break on Saturday.
Although they came out strong with a 5-1 lead early in the first set, the T-Birds again were the victims of a lopsided first set score as they were on Friday. An 8-0 run for the Dinos in the middle of the set led to a 25-16 opening win for them.
But while the T-Birds bounced back with three straight hard-fought set wins on Friday, head coach
Richard Schick cautioned that his side can't rely on winning every close set they encounter, and they found themselves on the wrong end of two close ones to finish Saturday's match.
"You're playing with fire when that happens," Schick said. "We started quite a bit better in regards to getting an early lead in the first set, but I just think we thought it was going to be easy. Calgary has some proud players over there that have won national championships, and they aren't going to let things slide. It was just an uninspired effort."
Graham Vigrass was huge for the Dinos late in both the second and third sets. He recorded the team's final two kills of the second set and two of the last three in the third. He also came up with a big block in the third set that halted a UBC rally and put the Dinos up 23-22.
UBC hung in with two
David Zeyha Kills and a huge solo block from setter
Milan Nikic, but after a Trent Monagle kill set up match point, he then helped finish it off as part of a three-way block with Jay Blankenau and Levi Nutma to seal the win.
The Dinos block was strong all night. Nutma and Monagle had six block assists each, and Calgary had 13.5 as a team.
Allen Meek led the Dinos to a 2-0 lead with six kills in each of the first two sets. He added three in the third to finish with a match-high 15.
Zeyha led the T-Birds with 10 kills.
Robert Bennett was next with eight, but the offence struggled as a whole, hitting just .101 in the match.
Despite the loss, the T-Birds are just one win behind last year's total at 6-2 for the season.
"I think last year at times we were afraid of making mistakes, and then we would make a mistake. This year I think we're at a time where sometimes we are afraid of making a mistake, so we just play it safe and keep the ball in play, and make it too easy on them," Schick said. "It's that fine line between knowing when to be safe and when to really go after it. But we're alright."
The Dinos improve to 5-5, and will be at home to wrap up their first half schedule against UBCO next weekend.
UBC finishes the first half with a tough trip to Alberta to take on the No. 2 Golden Bears. The next home games for the T-Birds will be after the semester break on January 13 and 14.
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