VANCOUVER – The No. 5 UBC Thunderbirds ended the first half of the 2011-12 Canada West regular season schedule on a high, dispatching the No. 3 Alberta Golden Bears in straight sets (25-20, 25-23 and 25-23) on Saturday night in Edmonton.
David Zeyha (3rd, Grande Prairie, AB) and
Robert Bennett (5th, Vancouver, BC) each recorded 12 kills to lead UBC, while setter
Milan Nikic (1st, Calgary, AB) added 25 assists.
Alberta's Mitch Irvine had 18 kills to lead all players in the match.
“Tonight was better,” said UBC head coach
Richard Schick, comparing the win to Friday's four set loss. “Tonight we played and pushed the entire night while last night we were far too inconsistent. We really fought hard and played aggressively on both offence and defence. It was a very good response from our guys after last night.”
Little fault can be found with UBC's performance on Saturday night, as the Thunderbirds seemed to come up big in just about every crucial situation in the match.
The Thunderbirds powered ahead in the third to go up six points at the technical timeout.
But the Golden Bears fought back to get to within a point twice, at 21-22 and 22-23, only to succumb to Bennett's two decisive kills to end the see-saw affair.
The second set was a back and forth affair with UBC going up early before surrendering an 8-2 run that gave Alberta an 11-8 lead.
It grew to 16-12 before the Thunderbirds ran off five straight points to take the lead at 17-16. The two teams remained locked in a tight match down the stretch before UBC was able to gut out a 25-23 win.
Leading 20-19 in a close opening game, UBC proceeded to win five of the next six points to take the set, with the final point coming on a
Chris Klassen (5th, Vancouver, BC) service ace.
Zeyha and rookie
Jarrid Ireland (1st, Winnipeg, MB) each had four kills in the first set.
UBC recorded 12 kills as a team with just a single error to post a 50 percent attack rating in the opening frame.
The win was UBC's first over Alberta since January 25, 2008, when the Thunderbirds knocked off the then-No. 1 ranked Golden Bears in Vancouver.
UBC goes into the winter break with a record of 7-3, good enough for fourth in the Canada West standings, one game behind Alberta (8-2).
The Thunderbirds will travel to California at the end of the month to play four exhibition games against NCAA schools, including a December 30 match at UCLA.
UBC's next conference games will take place on the weekend of January 13 and 14, when the Thunderbirds host Thompson Rivers at War Memorial Gymnasium.
