VANCOUVER – A slow start gave way to a dominant finish for the No. 2 UBC Thunderbirds on Saturday, as they rolled over the No. 3 Alberta Pandas 3-1 (23-25, 25-22, 25-16, 25-14) at War Memorial Gym to sweep the weekend series.
BOX SCORE
WVB: T-Birds v. Alberta (Nov. 3, 2012) Gallery
UBC once again got a dominant performance from both their big guns on the outside. This time it was
Lisa Barclay leading all players with 16 kills while
Shanice Marcelle had 12.
Marcelle was the model of consistency all weekend, racking up a total of 26 kills to average nearly four per set. She also had only one error all Saturday and just four in 78 attacks for the entire weekend.
“Shanice had a tremendous weekend in terms of steadiness of play,” head coach
Doug Reimer said. “Both of our power hitters were hitting some really good angles but Shance had just one error on 40 attempts. A lot of those were play-continues but that's putting Alberta in trouble so a lot of positives for her.”
Marcelle also had 13 digs and five blocks for UBC. Blocking was strong all around for the 'Birds, who held a 14-4 advantage in that category. Middle
Mariah Bruinsma led the way with six.
Things started off a bit rocky for UBC though. The T-Birds had a first set win in their sights until a great serving run by Jaki Ellis stole it away in the end. UBC was up 23-18 when Ellis took to the service line, and she had even some of UBC's best defensive players off-balance in the passing game.
That allowed the Pandas to get their offence rolling consistently and Kacey Otto took advantage with three kills over the next five points to make it a 23-23 game. Ellis then picked up two straight aces to complete a 7-0 Alberta run and win the set.
“There was a serve-receive breakdown towards the end of the first set and it did carry over and I thought we took a while to steady ourselves in set two,” said Reimer. “You hope that as the season goes along you're able to recover a little more quickly but it was just a tough run we gave up.”
In set two it was the Pandas' turn to give one away late. They held a slight lead for most of the set until the 'Birds strung together some nice points late with some nice play of the bench. Second year outside hitter Alyssa Coulter had two kills and a block down the stretch to put UBC in front.
Coulter also gave the 'Birds some nice serving runs late in the match, finishing with a match-high three aces to go with her five kills and three blocks off the bench.
“Alyssa hadn't trained a lot at right side but she came in and changed things up for a bit,” Reimer said. “She got us some serving points and just worked hard with lots of good energy in the back court. She made some plays tonight and that was important.”
UBC controlled the third set easily after a 6-0 run midway through. They also finished it on a 5-0 run to keep their momentum going right through to set four.
That helped them jump out to an 8-0 lead in the fourth on
Brina Derksen-Bergen's serve, and they cruised to the easy win from there. Derksen-Bergen had 38 assists to help the UBC offence to a .295 hitting percentage in the match.
The 'Birds are now 3-1 while Alberta falls to 2-2.
