VANCOUVER - The UBC Thunderbirds dropped a close decision in their conference opener on Friday night against their rivals from Trinity Western, losing 3-1 (30-28, 25-20, 22-25, 27-25) to the Spartans in Langley in the front half of a home-and-home series.
BOX SCORE
After falling behind 2-0, the T-Birds rebounded nicely to take the third set, and they were threatening to take it the distance with a 21-19 lead in set four. Consecutive kills from Brad Kufske got the Spartans level at 21, and from there the teams traded point for point up until they were tied at 24.
Then the Spartans edged in front 25-24 with a key block from Nicholas Del Bianco and Lucas Van Berkel. After another point swap on two missed service errors made it 26-25 for Trinity Western, the 'Birds missed an attack on the next point to give the Spartans the win.
A big turning point in the match came way back in the first set, when the 'Birds had just completed a 9-1 run to take a 15-7 lead. Starting setter
Milan Nikic was injured on that play and did not return. The Spartans went on a 10-2 run from there to tie the set up at 17.Â
UBC still had a chance to take the first set with
Austin Hinchey in Nikic's place, up 24-23 after a
Ben Chow kill to bring up the first set point of the night, but the Spartans managed to survive time and again, driving the score up to a tie at 28. Then Branden Schmidt and Del Bianco teamed up for two straight blocks to put Trinity Western up 1-0 in the match.
For the rest of the night, libero
Ian Perry moved over to the setter spot while
Noah Derksen slotted in at setter, Perry finished with 29 assists, eight digs and two kills on as many attacks in an impressive display of his versatility. He saw significant time at setter for UBC as a freshman.Â
Chow was his top choice on offence, as the third year hitter racked up 14 kills on 44 attacks. He also added three block assists. Rookie hitters
Will Dichuk and
Mat Guidi combined for 14 kills in their first CIS regular season match. Dichuk also had a match-high 12 digs.
Alex Russell had 10 kills on .333 hitting in the middle, adding two solo blocks and two block assists.
Del Bianco set the pace for the Spartans with 18 kills and five block assists from the outside. Kufske added 15 kills, and middle Van Berkel had 10 kills, one solo block and six block assists. The Spartans outblocked the T-Birds 11-7 as a team.
"We battled hard, but we got off of our game plan," said UBC head coach
Richard Schick. "I thought Milan going down affected us but we went away from what we were doing earlier on. We switched Ian into set and he did a good job."
These teams will get another shot at each other tomorrow night, this time at UBC's War Memorial Gym. The action starts at 7 p.m.
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