KAMLOOPS - With a playoff spot already assured, the UBC Thunderbirds closed out their 2010-11 Canada West regular season with a 3-0 (15-25, 23-25, 19-25) loss to the no. 9 ranked TRU WolfPack on Saturday night.
UBC finishes the campaign with a 7-11 record and are seventh overall in the conference standings. They will meet the CW no. 2 seed and defending CIS champion Calgary Dinos in a best-of-three quarterfinals series on the road next weekend. In their regular season meetings, Calgary narrowly defeated UBC 3-2 and 3-2 at U of C's Jack Simpson Gymnasium.
Ben Chow led the T-Birds with 10 kills in the loss. UBC turned to their bench and played without starting setter
Ryan Zwarich, middles
Joe Cordonier and
Yari Kozel, and right side
Demijan Savija.
Chris Klassen and
Ian Perry split the setting duties while
Cary Brett and
Jeff Ross patrolled the middle for UBC. Brett was solid for the 'Birds, tallying five kills on eight attacks to go along with one service ace and two solo blocks.
TRU (9-9) saw five attackers with at least five kills on the night as they came into the contest trying to pull even with Brandon in the battle for fifth place. Leading the way were Kevin Tillie, Aleks Saddlemyer, and Ryan Talsma who finished with seven kills apiece. As a squad, the 'Pack hit an impressive .325 and out blocked UBC 10.5-4.5. It was all for naught, however, as the Bobcats defeated Winnipeg to clinch fifth place in the conference standings.
The opening set saw TRU jump out to a 16-10 lead at the second technical timeout. UBC cut into that deficit with a 3-0 run and trailed 17-14 before TRU responded with a 5-0 to take command of the first frame.
The hosts jumped out to another big lead in the second set, leading 16-11 before UBC mounted a comeback. A 4-0 run brought the visitors to within one at 18-17 and UBC then knotted the set at 19-19. They traded points with the 'Pack until TRU put together a 3-0 to make it 24-21. UBC fought back with a kill and service ace from
Garret LaValley to draw within one but a service error gave TRU the night's most tightly contested set.
UBC led in the early going of the third set, carving out an 11-8 lead. The Wolfpack slowly chipped away at that deficit and used a trio of 3-0 runs during the middle of the set to pull ahead 18-14 en route to closing out the win.
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