REGINA, Sask. - The No. 7-ranked UBC Thunderbirds beat the Regina Cougars in men's volleyball action at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health and Sport on Friday.

The Thunderbirds earned their first win of the Canada West season, improving to 1-2 overall after an 25-18, 25-21, 25-20 win over the Cougars.

The Cougars fall to 1-4 on the year, dropping their fourth consecutive after an opening night win at UBC Okanagan.

The Thunderbirds tallied 38 kills and only six errors in Friday's win, compared to the Cougars numbers of 31 kills with 22 errors. Each team had 80 attempts, but the Thunderbirds hit at a much higher rate - going off for a .400 hitting percentage. The Cougars were plagued by errors all night, checking in with a .113 mark.

Leading the pack for UBC was third-year hitter Mat Guidi (Coquitlam, B.C.). Guidi exploded for 13 kills on 20 attempts with only one error. Irvan Brar (Surrey, B.C.) checked in with nine kills of his own while Alex Russell (Surrey, B.C.) had seven.

For the Cougars, Josh Nickel upped his team-leading total to 56 kills this season after recording 10 on Friday. Matthew Lueck had seven while Brad Millers had a strong showing from middle blocker with six kills and two blocks.

Michael Corrigan and Dalton Wolfe split time at setter, with Corrigan getting credit for 16 assists while Wolfe assisted on 14 kills. Byron Keturakis (Surrey, B.C.) assisted on 32 of the 36 Thunderbird kills.

Saturday night will see the rematch between the two teams, with game time set for 5:30 p.m. PT at the CKHS.