The University of British Columbia Athletics

VANCOUVER – The seventh-seed Brandon Bobcats took down the two-seed UBC Thunderbirds in another five-set thriller at War Memorial Gym on Friday night (20-25, 26-24, 20-25, 25-15, 21-19) to get through to the Canada West Final Four.
 
The Bobcats led 14-11 in the fifth set and seemed to have the game in the bag already, when Alex Russell and Quentin Schmidt breathed new life into the T-Birds with a huge block after a marathon rally to reenergize the crowd and pick up some momentum. A Brandon attack error and a kill by Schmidt tied things up at 14, and then the T-Birds went up one on a kill from Russell to get their first shot at match point.
 
But a service error let the Bobcats off the hook, tying things back up at 15, and from there the teams went shot-for-shot until fifth-year Brandon middle Dan Boutwell helped ensure his CIS career will extend at least one more week with a big kill to make it 20-19. On the next point, Schmidt's sharp angle attack beat the Brandon blockers but went just long to land out of bounds and give the Bobcats the win.
 
"Today we played well but they played better. We had a battle. I'm extremely proud of this team," said UBC head coach Richard Schick. "They battled really all through this year with injuries, and everything else that was going on. Definitely an unfortunate ending that we didn't see coming, but at the same time, we have to give Brandon credit. They came in here and played well and were much deserving of the win."
 
Sebastien Steigmeier was almost unstoppable in game one on his way to 27 kills, and although he led the Bobcats with 18 again Saturday, the T-Birds made his life a lot more difficult. The fourth-year outside hitter was running into the UBC block all night, and wound up with 12 attack errors.
 
"He might have been a little tired, so it was probably a combination of that and some of our adjustments too," said Schick. "We were a lot more disciplined in our blocking, which was good, and it gave us a chance at the end."
 
Sam Tuivai and Boutwell managed to pick up the slack though, with Tuivai piling up 15 kills, and Boutwell adding 11 on only 16 attacks.
 
For the T-Birds, Ben Chow led the outside hitters with 17 kills, but the team struggled to get consistent, efficient offensive production on the outside. Chow was held to a .140 hitting percentage and Schmidt was in the negatives, as the Bobcat block made its presence felt.
 
Frank Jones led that blocking effort for Brandon, with a whopping six solo blocks to go with three assists. Brandon had 14 blocks in total. Steigmeier also had a solo block and four assists.
 
The T-Birds also had 14 blocks, with Russell's five solos and five assists setting the pace. He was also the top offensive outlet for UBC Saturday, with 16 kills on .444 hitting.
 
Milan Nikic had 53 assists and two aces. Ian Perry matched a game-high with 13 digs. Chris Howe had nine kills, two solo blocks and two block assists.
 
After UBC went up 2-1 in the match, the Bobcats came storming back with the set of the series in the fourth. They didn't commit a single attack error in the fourth on their way to a .632 hitting percentage in the set, holding UBC to .148 hitting to pick up a convincing win and take all the momentum into the fifth.
 
Brandon now moves on to the Canada West Final Four, while the Thunderbirds see their season come to an end. The Final Four goes next week at No. 1 Trinity Western.
 
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