VANCOUVER - Playing short-handed for the second straight night without team kills leader
Ben Chow, the UBC Thunderbirds were edged by the UBC Okanagan Heat 3-2 (25-23, 25-27, 25-23, 18-25, 15-11) on Saturday in Kelowna.
After falling behind 9-3 in the fifth set, the T-Birds made an impressive charge to come back and knot things up at 10, but after a couple UBC errors and an ace from Lars Bornemann, the table was set for conference kills leader Nate Speijer to punctuate the night with his 17th kill on match point.
Despite the impressive showing by Speijer, it was actually Alex Swiatlowski who propelled the Heat offence on Saturday with 20 kills on 39 attacks. They were the only two Heat players who reached double digits in kills.
For the 'Birds,
Quentin Schmidt led the way with 17 kills, while middle
Alex Russell had another great offensive showing with 15 kills on only 21 attacks.
Noah Derksen had 10 kills and
Chris Howe added nine, but without their top outside hitter in Chow, the 'Birds didn't have quite enough to push them over the top.
Each of the first three sets were just as tightly contested as the final scores indicate. In sets one and three, the teams were never separated by more than three points at any time. And in set two, after the 'Birds briefly held an early 4-2 lead, no team even held more than a one-point lead until UBC went back up 23-21 and eventually won 27-25.
The teams were also very closely matched in their overall stats, with UBCO outhitting UBC .219 to .203 as a team, and outblocking them 12-10. UBCO had seven service aces and 15 service errors, while UBC had five aces and 15 errors.
Setter
Milan Nikic had a strong outing for the 'Birds, with 52 aces, nine digs, four block assists and three kills on five attacks. He was also an instrumental part of a key 6-2 run midway through the fourth set to help UBC force a fifth, recording four quality assists and a kill of his own during that stretch.
The Heat improve to 4-10 and although they are still second-last in the conference, they are actually just two games out of a playoff spot. Their road back to contention is a tough one though, as they face the top two teams in the conference over the next two weeks.
UBC falls back to fourth in the Canada West standings at 9-5 on the year, but they are just one game out of second place. They have a crucial series to look forward to at home next weekend, as the 7-7- Brandon Bobcats come to town to duke it out for playoff positioning. The 'Birds and Bobcats will clash on Friday, January 17 at 8 p.m. and Saturday, January 18 at 7 p.m at War Memorial Gym.
-30-
