CALGARY – Untimely errors on the Calgary Dinos' part ultimately led to their demise on Friday night, dropping a 3-1 (22-25, 25-15, 18-25, 20-25) match decision to the no. 8 UBC Thunderbirds at the Jack Simpson Gymnasium in Calgary.
BOX SCORE
Jarrid Ireland (Winnipeg, MB) and
Quentin Schmidt (Calgary, AB) led the visitors with 13 and 11 kills respectively, with the Calgary native Schmidt chipping in with eight digs as well.
Calgary was led by Greg Mann, who led the way in the match with 15 kills and seven digs, and Connor Frehlich, who chipped in nine kills and seven digs himself. Jovan Jankovic added 7 blocks in the effort as well.
“Another up and down affair for us, in regards to our second set performance," said UBC head coach
Richard Schick. "Overall, the guys battled hard and even though we went through some tough times during the match, we really stuck with it and stuck together, which was really good to see."
With the exception of a dominant second set on the Dinos' behalf, the T-Birds managed to pull away in the late stages of each set with steady play and numerous Calgary miscues. Up 19-18 in a close first set, UBC took advantage of five Calgary errors to take a 25-22 victory.
A monster Frehlich kill and a resounding Jankovic block set the early tone in the second set, as the Dinos raced out to a 7-0 lead. Schick tried valiantly to stop the Dinos charge, using his second timeout of the set with the Dinos up 9-1, but it made little difference. Calgary's lead would balloon to as much as 18-6 before UBC managed to restore balance, outscoring the home squad 9-7 in the late going to ensure a more respectable 25-15 second set score.
The T-Birds pulled away in the third set after a point-for-point battle in the early going, surging to a 16-12 technical timeout lead. A terrific dig by Calgary's Jackson Maris set up a crushing Anton Louden kill to narrow the T-Birds lead to 16-13 coming out of the timeout, but the Birds would ultimately finish on a 9-4 run to wrap up a 25-18 set victory.
A trio of Calgary errors at the worst time sealed the deal for the Thunderbirds in the fourth set. Down by a score of 21-19 in a close final set, Calgary committed a service error and an attacking error to fall behind 19-23 before Ivan Kartev served a floater into the net on a UBC match point.
"
Jarrid Ireland came off the bench and added a spark that we needed in terms of his offence and blocking at the net, which was key," said Schick.
In total, the Dinos committed 27 attacking errors to UBC's 19, while the T-Birds were also more efficient at the net, hitting on 25% of their attacks to Calgary's 17%.
The match victory pulls the no. 8 Thunderbirds to a 3-4 record on the year, while the young Dinos fall to 2-5. Game two of the weekend set goes on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. at the Jack Simpson Gymnasium.
"Again for us to have success tomorrow, we're going to have to put more pressure on them with our serving. It can get better for sure," said Schick. "Calgary passed the ball extremely well tonight and we're going to have to put more pressure on them for us to have the success we want tomorrow."
-30-
