VANCOUVER - The No. 7 UBC Thunderbirds men's volleyball team fell in four sets to the Thompson Rivers WolfPack in Kamloops on Friday night.
The set scores were 25-22, 30-28, 22-25 and 30-28 in favour of the hosts.
BOX SCORE
“This was a tough loss tonight," said UBC head coach
Richard Schick. "We had inopportune errors at inopportune times tonight, which was the difference between this weekend and last weekend's second match against Winnipeg."
With a 7-2 run late in the fourth set, UBC pushed ahead of TRU to lead 23-21. But the WolfPack replied with three straight points to set up match point at 24-23 only to see a Brad Gunter error tie the proceedings . The home team would get four more match points only to see UBC fight back.
Jarrid Ireland (Winnipeg, MB) provided two kills late, one that tied the match at 27-27 and one that tied it at 28-28. Still, the T-Birds could never completely turn the tide, and ultimately succumbed after two straight kills from Philip Ozari ended the match.
The T-Birds stayed alive by capturing an evenly-played third set that featured six lead changes. The teams split the first 26 points evenly before UBC went on a 3-0 mini-run that gave the T-Birds a slight lead they were able to hold on to until
Chris Howe (Salt Spring Island, BC) delivered a final kill to end the set.
The second set was the first of two to go long on Friday night at the TRU Gym. A service ace from
Ben Chow (Surrey, BC) allowed UBC to tie the set at 23-23. TRU had match point at 24-23, 25-24, and 27-26 only to see service errors tie the set on every occasion. After gaining a 29-28 advantage, TRU closed out the set with a service ace.
The WolfPack won the opening game after taking four of the final five points in the set from UBC, which drops to 9-6 after the loss. The Thunderbirds sit in fifth place in the Canada West standings.
They were led by Ireland, who had 17 kills in 39 chances. Setter
Milan Nikic (Calgary, AB) had 39 assists, while Chow had eight digs.
“We have to be tougher, simple as that," said Schick. "That was the difference tonight. Just the toughness."
Schick's crew will get another chance at TRU on Saturday night as the two teams will play again tomorrow, starting at 6:45 p.m.
- with files from Larry Read (Thompson Rivers Sports Information)
-30-
