VANCOUVER - The No. 4-ranked UBC Thunderbirds improved to 7-3 in Canada West men's volleyball play after a 3-0 (30-28, 25-17, 25-21) win over the visiting Calgary Dinos (5-5) on Sunday afternoon in Vancouver.
UBC head coach
Richard Schick was pleased with the team's performance today.
"We always just want to be better than the day before and today, we were better than yesterday, which was really good to see," said Schick. "I thought our focus was good; we didn't let our minds wander and you can tell that by the plays that we made and by the plays we didn't make yesterday."
BOX SCORE
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Ben Chow led the 'Birds with 12 kills, while first-year player
Mat Guidi wasn't far behind with 11. Setter
Milan Nikic recorded a game-high 42 assists.
Dino Greg Mann led all players with 16 kills and Connor Frehlich contributed eight.
The first set opened with a competitive rally that put UBC first on the scoreboard after an intense attack from
Quentin Schmidt ricocheted off Calgary's Connor Frehlich. Intense play resumed with the scoreboard in favour of Calgary for most of the first set. UBC's
Gabriel Aaron,
Mac McNicol, and Schmidt tallied early kills to help the Birds, while Calgary looked to Mann, Frehlich and Darcee Froese to lead the scoring affront.
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Milan Nikic service error put Calgary ahead 22-18 but UBC rallied to take five of the next six points, including the last two on quick kills by first-years
Will Dichuk and Guidi, to tie the set at 23-23. The two teams would be tied five more times after that, with the play characterized by several heated, impassioned rallies. Finally, with the score tied at 28-28, a dominant kill by McNicol and a strategic kill by Chow gave UBC the first set, 30-28.
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The second set opened with a Dino net violation, giving UBC the first point. Aaron, Guidi, and Russell contributed kills for the 'Birds while
Ian Perry contributed several crucial digs. Calgary responded with attacks from Mann, Ian Kartev, and Sean Tuff; however, UBC maintained an advantage, due largely in part to Chow and Nikic, whose strategic ball placement helped UBC extend its lead to four, 14-10, going into the technical timeout. Nikic would go on to record 29 assists in the first two sets alone. A remarkable kill from
Ben Chow kept UBC ahead by four going into the technical timeout.
A Mann kill and a service error from UBC allowed Calgary to cut its deficit to three points (17-14). But the Thunderbirds regrouped to capture eight of the next 11 points, a run capped off by a team block from the duo of Russell and Guidi, to take the second set, 25-17.
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The third set was one of runs, as an early 6-1 Thunderbirds spurt gave the home team the advantage only to see the Dinos win eight of the next 12 points to take a 13-12 lead. UBC then went on an 8-2 run that featured two kills each from youngers Aaron, Guidi and MacNicol, to go ahead 20-15. The teams basically traded points until the end of the match, which concluded with a Calgary ball-handling violation.
Next week, the Thunderbirds will travel to Saskatchewan to take on the Regina Cougars. Friday night's game will begin at 6:30 p.m. Pacific and Saturday's game will be at 5 p.m.
In regard to preparation for next week's match-up against Regina, coach Schick noted that the team still has "a lot to learn. There are just so many things to challenge our guys with and we need to challenge them to make the best decision at crunch time."
The Dinos will host the UBC Okanagan Heat for two matches next weekend at Jack Simpson Gymnasium.
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