The University of British Columbia Athletics

VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds men's volleyball team went undefeated in Kamloops to capture the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack Invitational this weekend.
 
The Thunderbirds won the gold medal in dominating fashion on Saturday afternoon by defeating the UBC Okanagan Heat 3-0 (25-14,25-9,25-12) in the tournament final, a match that took just 54 minutes.
 
Ben Chow led UBC with 10 kills while both Ian Perry and Milan Nikic recorded 10 digs.
 
The Thunderbirds played a strong defensive game, picking up 32 digs overall and holding the Heat to a negative attacking percentage in the final two sets.
 
UBCO also had 12 service errors, while UBC was efficient from the service line with nine aces, which put the Heat in difficult situations throughout the game.
 
In the last game of the round robin, UBC defeated the University of Guelph Gryphons in four sets.
 
Rookies Mat Guidi and Joel Regehr had strong matches with Guidi leading the T-Bird attack with 14 kills.
 
Regehr and fellow middle Chris Howe controlled the middle with 10 and five kills respectively.
 
On Friday, UBC opened the tournament with two victories over Canada West schools.
 
The Thunderbirds gutted out a four-set win over UBC Okanagan in an 11 a.m. match after the team travelled overnight to Kamloops after a Thursday night match in Abbtosford.
 
"I was extremely happy with the way our young guys competed given the short turnaround," said UBC head coach Richard Schick.  
 
UBC lost the first set but came back to take the next three.
 
Mat Guidi and Quentin Schmidt led the 'Birds with nine kills each while Alex Russell chipped in with eight and first-year middle Regehr had seven.  
 
"Mat had a solid match attacking and Joel really did a good job attacking and even though he didn't have a lot of stuff blocks, he slowed down a lot of UBCO attacks which gave us the opportunity for transition points," said Schick.
 
UBC was forced to go five for the second night in a row in Friday's second match, winning a battle against host Thompson Rivers (25-23,23-25,27-25,22-25,15-11).
 
Jarrid Ireland knocked down 20 kills while Nikic and Perry had 13 and 12 digs respectively.
 
"Ben Chow returned to the lineup which helped stabilize our passing and outside attack," said Schick. "Noah Derksen had a strong match defensively and Milan Nikic distributed the ball well and put our guys in good situations.  It continues to be an outstanding opportunity for us to try different players in different situations to help us prepare for the upcoming season."
 
UBC will host its own Thunderball pre-season tournament, starting Thursday night at War Memorial Gymnasium.
 
The full schedule is located at http://gothunderbirds.ca/sports/2012/10/18/VBALLM_1018121626.aspx
 
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