VANCOUVER – The No. 10 UBC Thumderbirds swept the Guelph Gryphons in straight sets to open the Thunderball Men's Volleyball Tournament on Thursday at War Memorial Gymnasium in Vancouver.
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The set scores were 25-21, 25-17 and 25-17. All three games followed a similar pattern, with UBC taking command late.
“It was just good to see us finish the way we did in each set,” said UBC head coach
Richard Schick. “We didn't play full games but I was happy with the way we finished.”
In the opening set, Guelph jumped out to a 7-3 advantage before
Jarrid Ireland (Winnipeg, MB) sparked a mini 4-0 run to tie the game. He recorded the kill with help from setter
Milan Nikic (Calgary, AB) to cut the UBC deficit to 7-4. Then with Ireland serving, the T-Birds won the next three points.
The teams were tied at 13 when UBC went on a 7-2 run, aided by four Guelph errors, to take control of the first set.
The two teams traded points to sit tied at 10-10 before a 3-0 run gave UBC some breathing room. Then at 19-15, a kill from
Alex Russell (Surrey, BC) started a 4-0 mini-run, which also saw two kills from
Jeff Ross (North Battleford, SK) and one from Ireland, that put the Thunderbirds ahead by eight points (23-15). That ended up as final margin of victory in the second set.
In the final set, UBC held a slim 15-14 lead before going on a decisive run to finish off the match.
A Nikic kill began a 9-2 spurt, which ended with the setter delivering two aces to put UBC ahead 24-16. In between, the T-Birds got two kills from Russell and
Ben Chow (Surrey, BC) to go along with two Guelph errors. The Gryphons were held to an attack percentage of -.120 in the third set.
Russell and Chow each had eight kills to lead UBC. Russell also had two solo blocks and seven block assists for 13.5 points on the game. He also had a hitting percentage of .538.
Ireland, Nikic and
Ian Perry (Abbotsford, BC) all had seven digs.
UBC was dominant at the net, holding a 14.5-4 advantage in team blocks.
Schick says he is seeing improvement from his team.
“There's just so much that has to be done in between plays and during plays and we're starting to do that a little bit more,” he said.
Star Winston Rosser led the way for Guelph with 10 kills and eight digs.
The Thunderball tournament will continue on Friday with three round robin games. Thompson Rivers will play Manitoba at 12 p.m. while Guelph will face TRU at 6 p.m.
UBC will host the No. 3 Manitoba Bisons on Friday at 7:30 p.m. in the marquee matchup of the night.
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