VANCOUVER – The No. 4 UBC Thunderbirds men's volleyball team won its third match in a row, defeating the Mt. Royal Cougars in straight sets (25-20, 25-19, 26-24) in Calgary to improve to 12-5 in Canada West league play.
BOX SCORE
Outside hitter
Ben Chow knocked down 14 kills to pace the UBC offence while
Quentin Schmidt, playing in his hometown of Calgary, added nine. Libero
Ian Perry had eight digs while setter
Milan Nikic, another Calgarian, had 32 assists.
UBC got the sweep after barely scraping past Mt. Royal in the third set, which was tied 16 times before two Cougars attack errors at the end of the game gave the visitors a 26-24 win. A Schmidt kill put UBC up 24-23 but Jordan Parkin replied with one of his own to tie the proceedings at 24-24. Chow recorded seven kills in the final set.
The Thunderbirds were able to capture a closely played second set thanks to four different 3-0 runs while keeping the Cougars to no more than a streak of two points in a row. With strong play at the net, UBC dominated the opening parts of the match, going up 12-4 in the first set, thanks to kills from Schmidt (2), Chow and Howe along with seven errors from the home side.
When Mt. Royal closed the gap to 12-8, UBC immediately replied by reeling off the next seven points. And while the Cougars fought their way back to be down just 23-20, the T-Birds were able to close out the set.
The same teams will play again on Saturday at 4 p.m. PT.
