VANCOUVER - The No. 2 Thunderbirds have already gone through No. 1 Trinity Western and No. 3 Alberta this season, coming out the other side with a solid 3-1 mark. Now they face a stretch of road games leading up to the semester break. UBC plays six of its next eight matches away from War Memorial, beginning this week at unranked Saskatchewan.
Both games will be streamed with live statistics at
CanadaWest.tv.
GAME TIMES
Nov. 9-10 - No. 2 UBC at Saskatchewan (4:15 p.m. at PAC Gymnasium - Saskatoon, SK)
No. 2 UBC Thunderbirds (3-1)
Last Week: W 3-0, W 3-1 vs Alberta
The 'Birds got huge performances from their dangerous outside hitter duo of
Lisa Barclay and
Shanice Marcelle against Alberta. They posted 27 and 26 kills respectively over the weekend and both turned in excellent overall performances as well, making an impact on the block and at the service line. Barclay is third in the conference in kills after two weeks, while Marcelle sits seventh.
Marcelle in particular was impressive with her consistency in the four-set win in game two, making just a single error in 40 attacks to push UBC past an Alberta team that gave them more trouble than any other last year, taking them to five sets in three of four meetings.
The 'Birds are looking great up the middle this year too after suffering through some hardships at that spot last year.
Jessica von Schilling looks to be in top form, sitting third in Canada West blocking with a 1.29 average, and
Mariah Bruinsma isn't far behind with 1.11 blocks per set.
With things shored up in the middle, fifth-year setter
Brina Derksen-Bergen has been able to return to a more traditional setter role after helping out on the block last year. As impressive as she was pulling double duty, she looks happy to be back in her comfort zone, and is currently third in the conference with 9.21 assists per set.
Saskatchewan Huskies (1-3)
Last Week: L 3-1, W 3-1 at UBC Okanagan
The Huskies started the year with a couple of tough losses at Alberta, and went through another one at UBC Okanagan last week before bouncing back to beat the Heat for their first win of the season.
In all three losses the Huskies have had some hard-fought, close set losses, alongside some real head-scratchers. They lost their first set of the year 25-8 against Alberta before coming back to win the very next set 25-22, and they beat UBCO 26-24 in set two of their first match before getting demolished 25-6 in the next set.
Those kinds of wild swings in play make them a very hard team to predict this early in the season, but the Huskies have managed to string together some good stretches of play in every match so far, which makes them a dangerous team.
Kassia Felske went off for eight blocks including three solo blocks in their win last week, and the Huskies had 13 team blocks in that match. If they can keep the defensive effort up at that level, they will be a tough out, but doing that for a whole match has been a struggle so far.
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