VANCOUVER –
Jarrid Ireland (Winnipeg, MB) had a huge night offensively to pull the UBC Thunderbirds out of some deep holes and grab a 3-0 win (25-18, 26-24, 26-24) against the UBC Okanagan Heat on Friday at War Memorial Gym.
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The 'Birds trailed late in both the second and third sets before turning on the afterburners to overtake the Heat at the finish line both times.
First they survived two straight set-points in the second, trailing 24-22 before finishing on a 4-0 run. Ireland got it started with a big kill down the line, and a Heat error evened the score at 24. Then Rob Gotch (Okotoks, AB) and
Chris Howe (Salt Spring Island, BC) got together for a block, and
Ben Chow (Surrey, BC) finished the set with an ace at the service line.
In the third, UBC was down 16-10 before clawing their way back into the action. They finally got things tied up at 20 and then went ahead on an Ireland kill. He also finished things off with an ace on match point.
“That doesn't make it easy on the coach, that's for sure. We can't be happy with just winning,” said UBC head coach
Richard Schick. “We have to be expecting the best from ourselves and we're not bringing our best. We have to realize that and not shy away from it, and it doesn't matter if they are first year, second year or fifth year guys, they have to take strides forward.”
Ireland finished with a dominant offensive stat line of 20 kills on .600 hitting, and he contributed three blocks as well in UBC's effort to slow down the Heat's fifth-year star hitter Riley McFarland, who was named Canada West Athlete of the Week two weeks ago when he posted 56 kills in a series.
“For a guy whose had 30-plus kills and is all we've been reading about lately, I thought we did a really good job in the middle against him and on the outside too to set up those blocks against him,” Schick said. “That was a focus of ours in preparation and our execution defensively was good, but execution on offense still has to be better.”
McFarland was held to eight kills and a -.036 hitting percentage. UBC totaled 12 blocks on the night, with seven of them coming from Howe in the middle.
Chow also had a big night, with 11 kills, six digs and three blocks. The second-year hitter has been looking better and better as the season goes on, after missing all of last year due to injuries.
“Ben's been training so hard since he's come back from his Achilles and finger,” Schick said. “He's worked his butt off and he's demanding the ball and demanding to play. When a player does that in training, come game time it's hard to keep a guy off the floor.”
Greg Niemantsverdriet led the Heat with nine kills and tied for a team-high with five digs. Jon Russo added seven kills on .385 hitting.
The T-Birds improve to 11-6 on the year to stay tied for third in the Canada West standings. The Heat fall to 2-15. These teams wrap up their series on Saturday at 7 p.m.
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