The University of British Columbia Athletics

VANCOUVER – The No. 4 UBC Thunderbirds clinched a spot in the Canada West conference men's volleyball playoffs after beating the Mount Royal Cougars 3-0 (25-22, 25-18, 25-19) on Saturday evening at Calgary's Kenyon Court.

"We showed more fight and a more consistent effort than last night," remarked UBC head coach Richard Schick. "We built on last night and continued it on through today, Mt, Royal was better as well but we played tough."
 
BOX SCORE

Ben Chow of UBC led all scorers with 13 points on 12 kills, while Quentin Schmidt had 11. Ian Perry had nine digs while Milan Nikic had 42 assists. Riley Friesen led Mount Royal with 12 points.

"It was good to see equal distribution on offence, which makes it tough to defend," said Schick.

The Thunderbirds went up early in the third set by going on a 6-0 run, five of the points were on Alex Russell's serve, to jump ahead 9-4, putting the Cougars on their back foot.
 
Disputes between the referees and the Mount Royal bench boiled over resulting in a yellow card.
 
The teams traded points the rest of the way and while the home side got to within two points at 18-16, UBC claimed four of the last five, with two kills from Russell and an ace from Chow, to finish off the match.
 
Throughout the second set the Cougars and Thunderbirds traded kills and rallies were at a premium early.  UBC led just 15-14 but ended the set on a 10-4 run. The Cougars' defence was exhausted and could not keep up with the Thunderbird's aerial attack, which recorded 18 kills in the set.
 
Mt. Royal came out swinging to open the match, taking an early 4-2 lead. The Thunderbirds then got into the zone and raced out to a 15-10 lead. At 20-15, the Cougars started to show signs of life and came all the way back to 23-22 before UBC closed out the first set.

"Give our guys credit with all that's going on, they focused on the task at hand, playing well, helping each other out and winning volleyball games, which is what we're all about," said Schick. 

The Cougars drop to 8-10 while UBC improves to 13-5 after the win.

Next weekend, the Thunderbirds will head home to face Saskatchewan for a very important set with the Huskies. It is the last regular season home series for UBC and seniors Parker Jobin and Austin Hinchey will be honoured for their time as T-Birds.
 
- with files from Justin McCaffrey (Mt. Royal Sports Information)