VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds claimed a five-set, comeback win (25-18, 15-25, 24-26, 25-19, 15-10) over the Trinity Western Spartans in a non-conference men's volleyball game Thursday night at Abbotsford's Yale Secondary School.
"We put players in some different situations tonight and they responded well all game," said UBC head coach
Richard Schick, whose lineup included
Ben Chow at libero and
Ian Perry, playing at his old high school, at setter.
Quentin Schmidt and
Jarrid Ireland led UBC with 12 kills apiece, while
Gabriel Aaron, in his first CIS start, recorded 10 kills. In the first set, Aaron took the serve for UBC with the score tied at 6-6 and was the catalyst for 9-0 run that opened up a 15-6 advantage for the 'Birds.
Chris Howe,
Alex Russell and
Mac McNicol were all solid playing in the middle.
UBC improves to 2-1 in the pre-season and will travel overnight to Kamloops to play in a Friday morning match at the Thompson Rivers University pre-season tournament. The Thunderbirds' first game will be at 11 a.m. on Friday against UBC Okanagan.
Next weekend, UBC will host the Thunderball tournament before opening the 2013-14 Canada West regular season with a home-and-home series against Trinity Western. The first match will be Friday, Oct. 25 in Langley while the two teams will play at War Memorial Gymnasium on Saturday, Oct. 26 in UBC's home opener.
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