VANCOUVER - It wasn't your typical three-set win for the UBC Thunderbirds on Friday, as they survived two sets going past the 25-point mark, including a marathon second set, for a 3-0 win (25-17, 35-33, 26-24) over the Thompson Rivers WolfPack at War Memorial Gym.
Once it finally ended, it was clear that the second set would be the story of the match. UBC led by as many as eight points in the set before the 'Pack came charging back to take a late 23-22 lead.
The 'Birds survived three match point opportunities for the visitors before finally closing it out with back-to-back blocks from the rookie duo of setter
Milan Nikic and middle
Alex Russell to take all the momentum into the third.
"I wouldn't say that they found a way to lose, but that second set was definitely up for grabs several times," said UBC head coach
Richard Schick. "I'm very proud of the way our guys pushed for sure, because that was a big turning point even though we had let them back into it. I take the blame for that second set because I made too many subs and I couldn't get the guys that I wanted back in to the game when we wanted to. But guys like (Rob) Gotch and (Noah) Derksen got it done."
Gotch, a first-year outside hitter, was making his first appearance in a CIS conference game, and picked up his first kill late in the second set, in addition to adding a beautiful diving dig at a key moment. Along with Russell and Nikic, Derksen and
Jarrid Ireland made it a total of five first-years on the court for UBC in big pressure spots.
"When you look out there and you have four or five first year kids in that type of pressure situation, those guys all stand out. Everyone on our team stood out to me today," Schick said.
The third set was another tight one that saw the visitors take a small lead midway through, only for the T-Birds to come on strong late and finish it off with yet another block - this time from veterans
Robert Bennett and
Cary Brett.
"We just stress that we want to make plays," said Schick. "We have the potential to make a lot of plays, and we don't want to win on another team's error. Each one of those sets ended on us making a play so I'm definitely happy with that. That's how you're going to gain confidence."
UBC finished with nine blocks in the match, with Russell pacing the group. He was in on four of them, including one solo block.
Tanner Kozak led the offence with 12 kills on .400 hitting, and Bennett added nine kills.
Nikic had 32 assists and was in on three blocks, while senior setter
Chris Klassen also picked up a few key assists and earned praise from Schick for his ability to stabilize the offence in important spots.
WolfPack rookie Brad Gunter led all players with 15 kills while adding a solo block. Setter Colin Carson had 34 assists and four digs in the loss.
The T-Birds improve to 8-3 with the win, while Thompson Rivers falls to 2-11. The teams are back in action to finish their weekend series on Saturday at 7 p.m.
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