VANCOUVER - Looking to build on a successful first half of the season, the CIS No. 3 Thunderbirds get back to conference action this weekend in Kelowna against the UBC Okanagan Heat.
The teams will face off on Friday at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 7 p.m. in Kelowna.
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The T-Birds are second in the Canada West standings at 9-3, two games behind Trinity Western, and riding a conference-high five-game win streak. UBC also stayed sharp over the break with a three-game exhibition tour of California against NCAA competition. The T-Birds split two matches with NCAA No. 6 Pepperdine before losing to No. 4 Long Beach State.
Sparring against tough competition like that is valuable experience for the T-Birds, who breezed through their last few games of conference play before the break, losing just one set during their current win streak. This week's matchup appears to be another advantageous one for the 'Birds, with a 2-10 UBCO team waiting for them, but head coach
Richard Schick will expect the same level of intensity and effort from his players as they'd give against a top-ranked team, with nothing taken for granted.
Offensively, things have been flowing nicely, as the T-Birds rank second in the conference with a .290 hitting percentage while leading the league in total kills and assists. Setter
Milan Nikic obviously deserves much praise for his part in that equation, and his numbers speak for themselves, as he dictates the game as both the coordinator of the offence, averaging 9.13 assists per set, and as a league-leading server, averaging 0.57 aces per set.
But the effort and versatility of libero
Ian Perry in the first half of the season cannot be overlooked. Perry filled in without missing a beat at setter when Nikic went down for a few games with an injury, and he still ranks second in the league with 2.41 digs per set despite playing five matches as a full-time setter. And in those five matches, he averaged 10.3 assists per set, which would rank second overall in the conference if he qualified.
Regardless of who has been setting the ball,
Alex Russell has been putting it down hard. The big man leads the conference with a .457 hitting percentage, averaging 2.41 kills per game. Having such a reliable offensive outlet in the middle helps open things up for the likes of
Ben Chow and
Quentin Schmidt on the outside, and is part of the reason why the T-Birds have found so much offensive success this season.
It's been a very different story for UBC Okanagan, as the Heat rank dead even with the T-Birds in terms of their opponent hitting percentage, but offensively they are right near the bottom of the table, hitting .233 as a team.
To say that fifth-year outside hitter Nate Speijer has been a bright spot for this struggling team would be putting it lightly, as the Penticton, B.C. native leads the conference with 5.25 kills per game while somehow hitting well above the team average at .303. But there hasn't been enough support behind Speijer, as no other Heat player averages at least two kills on .200 or better hitting, and nobody on the team has even half as many attacks.
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