Vancouver – The UBC Thunderbirds kept pace near the top of the Canada West standings with an impressive sweep of the Brandon Bobcats this weekend, capped off with Saturday's 3-0 win (28-26, 25-22, 25-17) at War Memorial Gym behind another big day from
Ben Chow.
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Sets one and two were about as close as possible, as they were tied a total of 29 times and featured a combined 14 lead changes, but in both cases the T-Birds were able to maintain their composure in the pressure spots while the Bobcats faltered. Set one ended on three straight Brandon errors, and set two ended on back-to-back errors.
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That wasn't indicative of the overall match though, as both teams looked sharp and were ready to fight for every point. But in the end, the T-Birds' aggressive outside hitters just executed when they needed to and got the best of the battle, helping them edge the visitors in the first two sets before they pulled away in the third.
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Chow, who sat out last weekend with an injury and only returned to the court Friday morning before game one, set the pace with 17 kills on .467 hitting.
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"He's just done such a good job maturing as a volleyball player," UBC head coach
Richard Schick said of Chow, a third-year outside hitter. "Since he started with us years ago, it's been really neat watching him mature as a player, and when you tell him something or his teammates tell him something, to watch him make the adjustment right there in the game. That's what we're trying to get guys to do is hold each other responsible, and for him to acknowledge it and do it, that's the biggest thing I see with him. When you can take someone's feedback right away and use it in a positive way to our advantage, as a coach to see that, it's great."
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Quentin Schmidt also had a big night with 11 kills on the outside. Brandon's top outside hitter, Sam Tuivai, had 16 kills.
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"For us, it's just all about fighting. We have to fight for everything, and I thought we did that last night and tonight too," Schick said. "We were scrappy, and we got back to playing the way we used to play five-six-seven years ago, which was good to see. When you combine the execution with that level of intensity, we are tough to beat, and we want to be a tough team."
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Milan Nikic had a great all-around match for the second night in a row, coming up with kills on both his attack attempts to go with 34 assists and a great job at the service line that yielded two aces. He was also a factor in the blocking game for UBC and ended up with two block assists.
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Libero
Ian Perry quietly made a big difference as he often does, leading all players with 15 digs to make life difficult for the Brandon attackers in addition to his role as floor general for the 'Birds.
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"You look at what he's been asked to do this year and the injuries and things he's playing through, he's a guy who just loves to compete and he leads by that example," said Schick. "Ian makes guys better with that compete level and holding guys accountable, and telling them what he needs them to do."
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Roy Ching had 35 assists and a couple big blocks for the Bobcats. Sebastien Steigmeier had nine kills and two blocks.
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The Bobcats fall to 7-9, and now they look forward to a crucial home-and-home with the Winnipeg Wesmen next week, who are also fighting for a playoff spot at 7-9. UBC improves to 11-5, tied for second in the Canada West standings with Alberta and Thompson Rivers, and they will square off against Mount Royal on the road next week, as they embark on a tough stretch to finish the season against three teams all still in the thick of the playoff race.
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"I don't really care about our placement in the standings. I care about us taking care of business like we did this weekend," said Schick. "With our playoff format, it's going to be a dogfight no matter who we play, but for us to perform the way we did and reassure our guys like we did on back-to-back nights is impressive."
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The next home games for UBC are also their last of the regular season, scheduled for January 31 and February 1 against Saskatchewan.
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