VANCOUVER - The UBC Thunderbirds completed the sweep of the Mt. Royal Cougars, winning the second match of their Canada West men's volleyball series 3-2 (25-22, 25-16 13-25, 20-25, 15-12) in Calgary Saturday night.

Andrew McWilliam led all scorers with 23 points in the match. Alex Russell (Surrey, B.C.) had 19.5 points for sixth-ranked UBC.

The Thunderbirds won the first two sets before the Cougars claimed the next two, givingMRU the momentum heading into the fifth.

UBC led 8-5 at the midway switch on a kill by Irvan Brar (Surrey, B.C.), but the Cougars stayed right with them as neither side was able to win more than two points in a row before the other was able to side out.

The Thunderbirds, though, won more down the stretch. After the Cougars closed to 12-11, UBC earned three of the next four points to close out the match. That included a big triple block by Russell, Brar and Joel Regehr (Courtenay, B.C.)

On the final point, Byron Keturakis (Surrey, B.C.) sucked all the Cougars' blockers in and dumped a tip just over the net for UBC's final point.

The Thunderbirds picked up right where they left off last night running out to a 12-6 advantage to start the first set. MRU head coach Shawn Sky called a timeout, hoping his players would be able to collect themselves.

Out of the break the Cougars looked sharper but the Thunderbirds' defence was impeccable. McWilliam and Tyler Schmidt were stuffed at every turn. That included a UBC triple block by Russell, Brar and Keturakis on McWilliam that gave the Thunderbirds a 21-14 lead. The Cougars did manage to get the score to 23-18 forcing UBC to call a timeout.

Schmidt won his first three serves out of the break and caused the Thunderbirds to ask for another timeout.

The Cougars earned the next point, putting Mike Wickstrom to the service line. He hammered a bullet serve but during the rally the Cougars committed a violation, giving the Thunderbirds the first set.

The Thunderbirds' momentum continued into the second set, running out to a 7-2 lead. The Cougars had to earn every point; UBC conceded nothing in the second. Conversely, each time the Cougars made even the smallest mistake, UBC capitalized.

Before long the Thunderbirds led 15-7 and had a commanding lead in the set. The Cougars got to within five but UBC pulled away, winning the second set 25-16 and going up 2-0 in the match.

The Cougars showed signs of life in the third set as they teed up veteran McWilliam. Three of his kills had the Cougars out to a 10-4 lead. MRU ran away with the third, taking it 25-13 and getting themselves back into the match.

The hosts got off to another good start in the fourth. At 5-1, UBC took a timeout to stop the home side's momentum. Down 7-2, the Thunderbirds battled back to trail just 10-9.

Some impeccable setting by second year Tanner Greves increased the MRU lead, which was 16-10 at the technical timeout. The Cougars were able to nurse that advantage for the rest of the set, winning 25-20.

The loss drops the Cougars down to two games below .500 with a record of 4-6. UBC improves its regular season record to 6-4.

Mt. Royal will finish up the first semester on the road next weekend against Trinity Western.

UBC will return home where they will host the MacEwan Griffins for two games, beginning on Friday Nov. 27.

- with files from Mt. Royal Sports Information