VANCOUVER – The fifth-ranked Manitoba Bisons won an entertaining top-10 men's volleyball matchup against the No. 6 UBC Thunderbirds 3-2 on Friday night at War Memorial Gymnasium in Vancouver.
 
It was the first Canada West league game of the season for UBC, while Manitoba improved to 3-0 with the 25-22, 24-26, 25-22, 20-25, 15-13 triumph.
 
Adam DeJonckheere led Manitoba with 24 kills and nine digs. Devren Dear and Alex Strachan also had nine digs.
 
Irvan Brar (Surrey, B.C.) knocked down 20 kills to pace the UBC offence. Rookie Trenton Leisen recorded 12 digs to lead all players in that category.
 
"I thought when we had stability in our block, we showed how solid we can be," said UBC head coach Richard Schick. "I still think we're just a little inconsistent in what we're trying to do. Not playing as free as we can. There are obviously some things we game plan to do, but then at other times improvising and being able to get the feel of the game and being able to react that way. I thought we made some crucial errors at crucial times, where as their errors were early on in sets.
 
The Bisons claimed the fifth set with consecutive kills from Kevin Falconer, Ken Rooney and Dear after going down 13-12 to UBC.
 
The two teams battled back and forth in the final set, as neither team held a lead larger than two points in the fifth. They evenly split the first 16 points before a service error and a Falconer kill put the Bisons ahead 10-8 before the Thunderbirds came back to regain a 13-12 advantage thanks to three Manitoba attack errors and a Brar kill.
 
UBC won the fourth after going down 13-8. The 'Birds battled back to take a 16-15 lead into the technical timeout on a solo block by setter Milan Nikic on Falconer.
 
That was also how the set ended, as Nikic came up with the huge stuff on Falconer to give UBC the 25-20 win in the fourth.
 
Manitoba led for most of the third set, but it was never by more than three points. Nikic served an ace for UBC to tie the score at 22-22 but DeJonckheere came up big for the visitors, knocking down a kill on the ensuing point and then teaming up with Josh Crellin for two blocks that closed out the set.
 
Extra points were needed for the second. With the score at 24 apiece, UBC's Alex Russell got the kill to make it 25-24. Then he and Byron Keturakis combined for a block on Falconer to earn the two-point win.
 
The opening set was very much like the third. After being down 20-17, UBC battled back to tie the set at 21-21 on a combination block by Jarrid Ireland and Joel Regehr on Ken Rooney. However, Manitoba regrouped and won four of the next five points to finish off the set, which was capped off by two kills from DeJonckheere.
 
The two teams will play the second game of the weekend doubleheader on Saturday at War Memorial Gym. The first serve is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. PT.
 
"It's an opportunity for us to definitely get better," Schick said of Saturday's game. "I didn't think we played our best and we're always striving to do that. I didn't think we showed at all what we're capable of doing."