The University of British Columbia Athletics

VANCOUVER - On the opening night of senior weekend, the UBC Thunderbirds women's volleyball team improved to 17-2 with a sweep of the Saskatchewan Huskies (25-11, 25-19, 25-18).
 
BOX SCORE

The No. 1-ranked Thunderbirds were led by seniors Rosie Schlagintweit and Lisa Barclay who had 12 and 10 kills, respectively; these two comprised 78 per cent of UBC's overall kills. Setter Kirsty Setterlund contributed a game-high 23 assists
 
­­­­­Candace Hueser and Emily Humbert led the Huskies with five kills apiece. Setter Jina Barker tallied 18 assists. With the loss, Saskatchewan falls to 8-11.

UBC opened the match by winning six of the first eight points on the strength of three kills from Barclay and forced Saskatchewan to play catch up the rest of the way. The Huskies trailed 13-9 when T-Birds' setter Setterlund recorded a kill to start a 12-2 run that turned the set into a blowout. The dynamic duo of Schlagintweit and Barclay tallied eight kills - 73 per cent of the Thunderbirds' total in the set. The visitors didn't win more than two points in a row.
 
In the second, the Thunderbirds' dominance continued and by the technical timeout, UBC quickly found itself with a substantial 16-8 lead not to be relinquished for the remainder of the set. The Huskies responded with a 5-2 run, thanks to kills from Hueser and Anne Hanbidge along a service ace from Emmalyn Copping, to trail 20-14. But UBC's big lead allowed the 'Birds to trade points with Saskatchewan to the conclusion of the set. Barclay contributed five authoritative kills for UBC, bringing the crowd alive on more than one occasion.
 
A Barclay ace put UBC ahead 7-3 in the third set but five T-Birds errors and kills from Humbert and Copping contributed to a 7-4 spurt that brought Saskatchewan to within a point at 11-10. The home side then replied with another strong run to finish the set, winning 13 of the next 17 points to jump ahead 24-14. While Humbert (two) and Copping combined for three kills on a run that saved four match points for the Huskies, a service error on the last play ended any chances of a comeback.

Going into the weekend, UBC head coach Doug Reimer had hoped for consistent, steady play in order to build momentum going into the playoffs.

"I'd give us a B grade tonight," he said. "I thought we came out well. We played a great first set and pushed right through. We were clean and ran lots of good offense. What I liked is that we were able to change things up and keep flowing really well. In the second, we started well and played through most of it. Sets two and three didn't have quite the finish that the first did; it got sloppy at times. It was good because it reminded us that we have to continually get after it and put pressure on ourselves to play better."
 
After the match, graduating seniors Setterlund, Mariah Bruinsma, Kristine Johnson and Briana Liau Kent were all honoured by the UBC volleyball program for their contributions.  
 
The two teams will close out the weekend double-header on Saturday at 5 p.m. at War Memorial Gymnasium.