VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds rebounded from their first loss of the Canada West women's volleyball season last weekend with a four-set (25-17, 20-25, 25-10, 25-14) victory over the visiting MacEwan Griffins in Vancouver on Friday night.
 
With the win, UBC improves to 10-1. MacEwan falls to 3-8.
 
Juliana Kaufmanis (Richmond, B.C.) led the Thunderbirds' attack with 12 kills while setter Alessandra Gentile (Port Moody, B.C.) had 31 assists. Samantha Patko (Vancouver) had nine digs for UBC.
 
Kate Rozendaal and Cassidy Kinsella each contributed 11 kills for MacEwan, which also got 11 digs from Zoe Cronin and 29 assists from Claire McLoughlin.
 
Kaufmanis capped off a game-opening 9-3 run with a kill, forcing the Griffins to call a timeout early. MacEwan was able to building some momentum after that, winning four of the next five points with Kinsella and Jasey Hook knocking down kills.
 
The Thunderbirds, though, maintained their lead, which was 16-9 at the technical timeout.
 
Ciara Hanly (Calgary) made it 21-14 for UBC. MacEwan got two straight kills from Haley Gilfillan as part of another 4-1 run to close to 21-17, but the hosts recorded the next four points to claim the win in the first set.
 
The Griffins rebounded to win the second, thanks in large part to a 9-1 run in the middle of the set. MacEwan trailed 13-10 but a Kinsella kill got the sideout and started the Griffin surge. Rozendaal got a kill and then McLoughlin hit a service ace to tie the score at 13-13. A UBC service error gave MacEwan a two-point lead 16-14 at the technical timeout, before three more mistakes put the Griffins ahead 19-14.
 
Later in the set, Kaufmanis recorded an ace to close the gap to 21-19 but the visitors claimed three of the next four points, including three on Hook kills, to earn the set.
 
However, UBC was able to stop any momentum MacEwan might have built with the second set win by earning the next two in quick succession.
 
The T-Birds won six straight points on Gentile's serve early in the third set to take the lead 10-5. Then with Laura MacTaggart (Lacombe, Alta.) serving, UBC won eight straight points to go ahead 22-8 and effectively clinch the set.
 
The home side then closed out the fourth and the match. MacEwan jumped out to a 7-3 lead on a Kinsella kill, two Kinsella aces and two Rozendaal kills but it was all UBC after that. The T-Birds concluded the match on a 22-7 surge. MacTaggart delivered three aces as part of a seven-point run on her serve. UBC then finished with five straight points with Irem Eren (Izmir, Turkey) at the service line.
 
In total, UBC had 13 aces in the match.
 
The two teams will play again at War Memorial Gym on Saturday at 5 p.m. PT to finish off the 2015 portion of the Canada West regular season.