VANCOUVER - The CIS No. 1 UBC Thunderbirds came out swinging against the No. 5 Manitoba Bisons on Friday, and though the Bisons were able to regroup after a dismal first set, the 'Birds still escaped with a 3-0 win (25-10, 25-23, 31-29) at War Memorial Gym.
Kyla Richey,
Lisa Barclay and
Shanice Marcelle combined for 14 kills on just 24 attacks in a dominant first set for the T-Birds. UBC had as many blocks as the Bisons had kills in that set (three), and the 'Birds cruised to an easy 25-10 win.
Things weren't that easy on UBC for the entire match, but the game did seem to come easy to those three T-Bird attackers. Manitoba leads the conference in digs, but the T-Birds had no problem putting the ball down on them on Friday, as Marcelle ended up with a match-high 16 kills, including all three set-points, while Richey had 15 kills on .520 hitting and Barclay had 11 on .562 hitting.
"It was a good job for us in terms of efficiency," said UBC head coach
Doug Reimer. "All our hitters were efficient so offensively I was pleased with that. We had three hitters in double digits, with Kyla and Lisa hitting over .500, so that's a good job and Brina (Derksen-Bergen) did a good job distributing the ball."
Derksen-Bergen ended up with 40 assists and continues to be a huge part of the UBC blocking effort. She led the team with three block assists on Friday.
The T-Birds had big leads in both the second and third sets before the Bisons made it close late.
A disputed call late in the second turned out to be a huge turning point of that set. UBC was awarded the point after the referee decided a Manitoba pass had grazed the out of bounds pole before being hit over the net, and the T-Birds got a second point on the play when Manitoba was hit with a yellow card for arguing the call.
That made it 23-21, and after the teams traded net violations, Marcelle closed the set out for UBC.
A late 8-2 run by the Bisons tied the third set up at 24, and they had three shots at set point before Marcelle put them away again, first teaming up with
Jessica von Schilling on a block, then putting down her third set-point kill of the night.
"Obviously our start was great in the first set, but sets two and three just show that you've got to keep playing," Reimer said. "I don't think we sustained our serve as well in those last two sets. Manitoba had better serve and pass, and the result is them getting like 10 extra points in those sets."
Tricia Mayba, Kristi Hunter and Crystal Mulder all finished with eight kills to lead Manitoba.
UBC improves to 12-1 while the Bisons drop to 9-4. The teams meet again tomorrow at 5 p.m. to wrap up the series at War Memorial Gym.
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