CALGARY – A display of power put on by both teams eventually went UBC's way, as the
Jarrid Ireland and the Thunderbirds withstood a hungry University of Calgary Dinos team to win 3-1 (26-24, 25-23, 27-29, 25-22) on Saturday night at the Jack Simpson Gymnasium.
Ireland was sensational for UBC, eclipsing the 20 kill mark on the night with 22, while Greg Mann of the Dinos walloped just one short, earning a respectable 19 in the losing effort. Both Ireland and Mann's display of athleticism and power thrilled their respective fans throughout the evening.
BOX SCORE
“The guys battled extremely hard, we were down 24-22 in the first set and the guys came back and won,” said UBC head coach
Richard Schick. “We were down 24-21 in the third and gutted it out to the 29-27. We could have had them in three but looking at the scores, they could have had us in three as well.”
Both teams struggled with their consistency, each piling up far too many service and attacking errors. UBC ultimately came out on top of the error battle, albeit barely, missing on 15 serves to Calgary's 18, and missing 23 kills compared to 27.
Connor Frehlich pitched in to the Calgary effort with 13 kills and 6 digs, while Will Young notched eight kills, three aces and six digs himself.
Chris Howe and
Noah Derksen provided the secondary scoring punch for UBC, combining for 13 successful attacks.
"
Chris Howe did a great job in the middle blocking, and attacking," said Schick. "He's really stepping up and it was nice to see
Jarrid Ireland get back into the form we're used to seeing. We've got a long ways to go but we took a couple of steps forward this weekend which was huge for us."
Calgary seemed poised to reverse their fortunes from Friday night, pulling away from another back-and-forth affair in the late stages. An Ivan Kartev kill made it 24-22 for the Dinos before
Jarrid Ireland ripped off four consecutive kills to lift UBC past a stunned Calgary squad. Ireland had six of his 23 kills in the opening game.
The Thunderbirds pulled away from the Dinos once again, this time near the end of the second set, turning a 17-17 deadlock into 22-18 advantage. It turned out to be enough of a cushion for UBC to overcome three service errors to eventually take the set 25-23.
It nearly was more of the same in a thrilling third set for Calgary, as they couldn't convert on three straight match points, two of which slipped away because of attacking mistakes. Frehlich stopped the UBC momentum at 24-24 with an emphatic kill, and eventually saved the Dinos bacon again down 26-25, firing an outside hit off of UBC hands. Frehlich's burst of energy revived a Calgary crowd, which was eventually treated to a fourth set courtesy of a forceful Jovan Jankovic block to finish the 29-27 victory.
A monstrous block from UBC's
Alex Russell spread the 'Birds lead to as much five in the fourth set at 14-9, but Calgary still refused to go away. The Dinos' perseverance throughout the set seemed to be rewarded on a sprawling effort by Frehlich to keep the play alive after a Derksen attack off of the Calgary block. The spectacular dig was turned into only a one-point deficit for Calgary as Greg Mann bounced a kill off of the chest of a UBC player, bringing the crowd to its feet with the visitor's lead whittled to 23-22. However the Brisbane native sent his following serve way long, which the T-Birds capitalized on to eventually win 25-22.
"We really persevered when things got tough," said Schick. "Calgary battled hard, they were definitely a different, feistier team today and they battled hard but when you look at our blocking, with 18.5 blocks to finish, that was the difference, as well as us out-digging them. Still, we've got a lot of work to do, and our guys are the first ones to point out what we need to work on."
Tonight's win completed the first UBC sweep in Calgary since the weekend of Nov. 3-4, 2006.
The Dinos (2-6) will attempt to right the ship next weekend as they make the trip to Manitoba to face the Brandon Bobcats. The Thunderbirds (4-4), however, will attempt to parlay the weekend sweep into more success against the Regina Cougars, who will fly west to Vancouver for the two-game set.
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