VANCOUVER - With six straight wins under their belts and five of them coming in straight sets, the No. 2 UBC Thunderbirds is coming home red-hot for their last series at War Memorial until January. The UBC women's volleyball team will also spend this weekend celebrating four decades of success as the program will honour all nine of the school's CIS national championship teams.
Both games will be streamed with live statistics on
CanadaWest.tv.
GAME TIMES
Friday, Nov. 23 - Regina at No. 2 UBC (6 p.m. at War Memorial Gym, Vancouver)
Saturday, Nov. 24 - Regina at No. 2 UBC (5 p.m. at War Memorial Gym, Vancouver)
No. 2 UBC Thunderbirds (7-1)
Last Week: W 3-0, W 3-0 at Calgary
Although they handled the Dinos in straight sets twice last week, the first match was a lot closer than it looks at first glance, with set scores of 25-20, 25-23, 26-24. It's probably a good thing for the 'Birds to have to slug their way through a match once in a while to stay tuned up, because three of their last four matches have been complete blowouts with their opponents averaging 15.3 points per set in those three games. Kicking off the year against the conference's elite teams in Trinity Western and Alberta means the 'Birds will go basically an entire season before they run into them again in the playoffs. The 'Birds need to stay sharp in the mean time, and being pushed to the limit by their opponents helps with that.
Lisa Barclay and
Shanice Marcelle are both having big years swinging from the outside and they kept it going last week in Calgary. Barclay totalled 23 kills for the weekend on only 54 attacks, and Marcelle added 21 kills on 51 attacks. Both girls have been very efficient all year, and the stats reflect that, with UBC leading the conference in hitting percentage as a team. Marcelle in particular has been amazingly consistent and mistake-free, committing just one error per almost 13 attacks on the season.
Setter
Brina Derksen-Bergen has done a great job keeping her heavy hitters well-fed, dishing out 9.42 assists per game which is good for third in the conference. She's also second on the team in service aces after scoring five in game two against Calgary.
The 'Birds got a big performance from middle
Abbey Keeping that game. She added three aces of her own and now leads the team in aces despite being just fifth in serve attempts. She also added six kills on .385 hittng.
Regina Cougars (1-7)
Last Week: L 3-1, L 3-1 vs Winnipeg
Since winning 3-2 against Brandon to open the season, the Cougars have managed only three more set wins combined in all seven games since. Those losses had all been against tough competition until last week, when Winnipeg got its first two wins of the year at the expense of the Cougars, and now they look truly in danger of fading out of the playoff picture before the first half of the season wraps up.
The Cougars haven't had much luck slowing down opposing offences, ranking second-last in the conference with a .271 opponent hitting percentage, which is even higher than UBC's conference-leading .256 team hitting percentage.
Senior outside hitter Desiree Ates leads the team with 3.10 kills per set, but the real danger in Regina's offence might be junior middle blocker Michelle Sweeting. She ranks fifth in Canada West hitting percentage (.329) and ninth in kills (2.93), so the T-Birds know they will have to deal with a heavy dose of her as the only Cougar currently hitting above .180.
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