WINNIPEG - The #10 ranked Winnipeg Wesmen beat the #5 ranked UBC Thunderbirds in straight sets 3-0 (25-16, 25-11, 25-22) Friday evening at the Duckworth Centre in Winnipeg.
With the victory Winnipeg improves to 7-10. UBC falls to 8-7.
"Not our best performance of the year," remarked UBC head coach
Richard Schick. "Winnipeg played well. Our level of focus and competitiveness has to be better for us to end up on the positive side of these kind of matches."
Second year outside Nathaniel Therrien led the Wesmen with a match high 10 kills. Devin Schmidt added seven. Matthew Stubler led Winnipeg with 11 defensive digs. Ty Loewen and Brendan Black each had three blocks.
Jarrid Ireland led UBC with seven kills, playing in his hometown.
Robert Bennett added six.
Ian Perry finished with a match high 12 digs.
UBC started the match leading 11-10 in a tight beginning to the opening set. The tide quickly turned in Winnipeg's favor. The Wesmen scored six straight points to take a 16-11 lead into the technical timeout and with the help of three kills by Devin Schmidt in the closing moments, went on to win the opening set 25-16.
The Wesmen used the momentum from the first set and came out on fire in the second set opening up a quick 16-9 lead at the technical break and eventually went on to win the second set 25-11.
The T-Birds looking for something to go their way started the third set leading 10-6 early on. The Wesmen squad was too good on this night, scoring four of the next five points to close the gap to 11-10. Winnipeg closed out the set on a kill by Ty Loewen taking the third set 25-22.
The two teams will battle in the early match Saturday night at 4:00 p.m.
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