VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds only needed three sets to beat the Bisons in Manitoba on Friday, but it was far from a cake walk, with set scores of 27-25 and 28-26 to kick things off before the Bisons broke down in a 25-13 third set.
"It was a very good road game for us against a strong team," said UBC head coach
Doug Reimer. "While we didn't start well, we were pleased with our comeback in the first set. I thought Manitoba played well and we didn't match their execution early on but to find a way to finish sets when you are not playing your best is positive. In the close second set we had our chance to finish at 24-21 and didn't but again hung tough. The third set was easier and that was caused by our solid serving especially Jessica and Mariah, and their resulting drop in passing."
BOX SCORE
The first two sets played out in almost the same pattern, with Manitoba taking early leads (5-2 in the first set, 5-1 in the second set) before the T-Birds came back to tie things up around the mid point.
In set one, the teams were tied at 19 when Manitoba's Taylor Pischke and Rachel Cockrell put together a mini 3-0 run, putting UBC on the ropes. But the tandem of
Lisa Barclay and
Shanice Marcelle was too much for the Bisons to stop on Friday. They each had six kills in the first set to lead UBC back into position for the win, and
Alissa Coulter came up with the kill on game point to give UBC a crucial lead on the road.
Then it was the T-Birds' turn to seize the lead late after another close battle in the second set. They had a 3-0 run of their own after the set was tied at 21 to give themselves multiple chances at game point, but three attack errors and a Cockrell kill gave the Bisons a 4-0 run in response, putting them up 25-24.
The T-Birds managed to outlast the Bisons in the battle of attrition though, coming out on the right side of a string of errors from both teams late in the set. Barclay had two big kills late to set UBC up with another chance at game point, and an error from Cockrell provided the punctuation.
That seemed to be all the gas Manitoba had in the tank, as the 'Birds cruised through the third set without much resistance. Manitoba had consecutive points only once in the set, and UBC hit .382 as a team.
Barclay added a few more kills to her total, finishing with an impressive 18 on .316 hitting for the night. Marcelle was deadly as well, racking up 15 kills on .433 hitting.
Rosie Schlagintweit also had a big game coming back from an injury, adding eight kills on .316 hitting.
Senior setter
Brina Derksen-Bergen had to be on top of her game for all that to happen. She dished out 40 assists and got it done defensively too with 10 digs.
The Thunderbirds improve to 10-1 on the year, with nine straight wins under their belts. They have a chance to push it to double digits tomorrow, when they square off against the Bisons again for their last conference game before the break.
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