VANCOUVER – The No. 7 UBC Thunderbirds stayed undefeated in Canada West play, with a four-set victory over the No. 10 Calgary Dinos at War Memorial Gymnasium in Vancouver on Saturday afternoon.

With a 25-20, 26-28, 25-23, and 25-22 victory, UBC swept the weekend series to improve to 6-0. Calgary falls to 4-4.

Laura MacTaggart (Lacombe, Alta.) led the hosts with 13 kills while teammate Danielle Brisebois (Bolton, Ont.) had 12.
 
Ali Woolley knocked down 13 kills for the Dinos, who also got a 12-kill performance from Laura McManes.

The Thunderbirds played a Cinderella fourth set, coming from behind late in the game – winning the last eight points – to take the match, their sixth straight win to open season.
 
Woolley and Beth Vinnell combined for a block that put Calgary ahead 6-1 in the fourth set. The Dinos still held a five-point lead late at 22-17 and it looked like the match would go the distance.

Then Brisebois recorded a kill to send setter Alessandra Gentile (Port Moody, B.C.) to the service line with the score 22-18 still in favour of Calgary. She immediately delivered, with two aces. The Dinos lost the next three points on a bad set, a combo block by Brisebois and Emily Cicon (Courtenay, B.C.), and a kill by MacTaggart, before Gentile served two more aces to cap off the spectacular comeback.

 "We were fatiguing," said UBC head coach Doug Reimer, who earned his 300th conference victory as coach of the T-Birds yesterday. "It was just mentally how to maintain our energy and maintain our focus. That's a lot of points of volleyball and quite a few longer rallies."
 
In the opening set, McManes knocked down a kill late in the first set to give her Calgary squad a 17-15 lead but Brisebois replied with a kill to spark a 10-3 UBC run to end the set. MacTaggart had a solo block and teamed up with Cicon on a pair of combo blocks to help the Thunderbirds in the late surge.
 
The Dinos needed extra points to take the second set. They were up 24-20 but the T-Birds saved four set points to level the score. Calgary fought off a UBC set point at 26-25 after a T-Birds service error and then claimed the set on a pair of Vinnell kills.
 
The teams fought to another close finish in the third as the set was tied 23-23 before a kill by Thunderbird Gentile and a solo block by Nicola Laniuk (Surrey, B.C.) tipped the score in favour of the home side.

Natasha Gordey led Calgary defensively with 17 digs and Erika Myhre recorded 40 assists.

For UBC, Samantha Patko had 13 digs and Gentile had a game-high 43 assists.
 
The Thunderbirds will play again next weekend in Winnipeg as they take on the Wesmen. Games are slated for Friday Nov. 13 and 14 at 4 p.m. PT. Calgary will return home to host UBC Okanagan at Jack Simpson Gym next weekend.