VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds went down 3-0 (25-21, 25-23, 25-18) to the No. 1 ranked Alberta Golden Bears on Friday night at War Memorial Gym.
After an opening weekend split with No. 2 Trinity Western that included a five set comeback win, the T-Birds couldn't consistently find that same fire against Alberta to push for the upset.
“I think we took a set to get going today,” said UBC head coach
Richard Schick, who cited too many early errors as one of his team's pitfalls. “We blocked decently after the first set and statistically maybe even better than they did, but we just have to be a lot more tactical and aggressive in our serving. Our serve game was too easy and even the easy serves we were missing. That's something that has to pick up on our end because it was the difference in the first two sets.”
UBC did put up impressive blocking numbers, including six in the second set and a 12-10 advantage for the match, but serving was a different story.
Alberta had five aces on the night to 10 service errors, and gave the 'Birds consistent trouble in their passing game, while UBC had just a single ace to 10 errors, and that came at the end of the third set.
Neither offence was slowed down much in the first set, as both teams hit well above .300. The Bears got lots of offence out of their middles, including four kills on six swings from Tristan Aubry, and the T-Birds just couldn't keep up despite six kills from
Quentin Schmidt.
The 'Birds looked to be gaining the upper hand in the second set, which was neck-and-neck from start to finish. Alberta's 10-8 lead was the last time any team led by two points until UBC surged ahead 17-15, with both teams trading big runs of blocking points.
The Bears quickly took the lead back though with a 3-0 run highlighted by two great kills from Ryley Barnes. After a Barnes ace made it 22-21 the Bears got the point of the set with the help of a great defensive play from libero Erik Mattson. He made a full layout dive to swipe a ball off the floor and keep it alive to eventually be put down by Jay Olmstead. That made it 23-21 and the Bears hung on for the two-point win.
“The second set was there for us. We had our chances but they just made the plays when it counted,” said Schick.
In the third set the Bears pulled away on the strength of their defence, which was in top form to end the match. Alberta held UBC to -.043 hitting in the third.
It was an extremely balanced effort offensively for Alberta, who got between seven and nine kills from Aubry, Barnes, Olmstead, Mitch Irvine and Matt McCreary. Barnes topped the list with nine.
For UBC, Red Deer College transfer
Quentin Schmidt led the way with nine kills on .381 hitting, and he added four blocks including a solo job to continue the strong start to his UBC career.
“He's done a lot of good things for us and today especially I thought he did a decent job in all aspects,” Schick said. “Serving is something he has to improve at but offensively and assignment-wise out there he's doing a really good job.”
The Bears move to 3-0 on the year while UBC falls to 1-2. The teams wrap up their weekend series tomorrow at War Memorial Gym, beginning at 7 p.m.
-30-
