VANCOUVER – The No. 6 UBC Thunderbirds rebounded from a painful five-set loss on Friday to drop the Winnipeg Wesmen in straight sets Saturday (25-22, 25-23, 25-22) at War Memorial Gym.
The 'Birds fell behind by two in the third set and Winnipeg clung to that slim lead until a huge solo block from UBC's
Chris Howe evened the score at 18. After the teams traded a few points, UBC went up 21-20 on another big block from
Alex Russell and
Milan Nikic.
The score was 23-22 when
Jarrid Ireland blasted his 15
th kill of the game through the Winnipeg defence, and Casey Schouten's attack on the next point sailed wide to give UBC the win.
“I was concerned about how we were going to execute today but I thought we did that better,” said UBC head coach
Richard Schick. “It was better volleyball where there weren't these ugly runs of six or seven points, we weren't down 6-0 to start any sets, so we were more consistent and even when we made an error we bounced back nicely which was good.”
UBC let a 2-0 lead slip away on Friday night against Winnipeg, but the 'Birds came back strong with a precise, efficient attack led by a great effort from sophomore setter Nikic.
Nikic racked up 37 assists and led all players with 13 digs. He also added three kills at big moments in the match and had three block assists.
“That was one of Milan's better matches. He even set a lot of nice balls that were hit out bounds so he could have had over 40 assists, but a great night for him,” Schick said.
His favourite target was Ireland, whose 15 kills were a match-high, but
Ben Chow had one of his best matches of the season on the outside too. He had 11 kills on .364 hitting, and was a huge part of UBC's late push in the second set to come from behind and take a 2-0 lead.
“He's coming back from some injuries and he's been itching to get out there,” Schick said. “We've just been trying to find some time for him because we've been doing a lot of good things, but he brings another dimension and we weren't as predictable with him out there.”
Rob Gotch was a key contributor off the bench late in sets for the second night in a row. He had three kills in three attacks for the 'Birds, adding an assist and two digs.
“We can't underestimate what Gotch did again today. He's our seventh man today, like a sixth man in basketball, just coming in late in sets and doing some really good things, and he just loves it,” Schick said.
Tom Douglas-Powell led the Wesmen with 10 kills. Setter Josh McKay had 28 assists and four kills, adding a couple solo blocks to round out a solid performance.
UBC improves to 9-5 on the year, putting them in a tie for fourth in the conference. Winnipeg is 7-7 on the year, continuing their streak of splitting every series of the conference season so far.
UBC hits the road to play at Thompson Rivers next week. The next home action for the T-Birds will be January 25 and 26 against UBC Okanagan.
