Vancouver, BC - In their second-to-last volleyball match in UBC's War Memorial Gymnasium, the three Thunderbird seniors in Abbey Keeping, Rosie Schlagintweit, and Lisa Barclay combined for 25 kills en route to a three-set victory over the visiting University of Regina Cougars. Set scores were 25-20, 25-14, and 25-17 in favour of the Thunderbirds.
"As a whole we did really well," said Barclay, who had nine kills and six digs in the match. "There were some things here and there that were a little sloppy, but all in all we held it together."
Although the first set appeared close, the Thunderbirds maintained control through the entirety of the match. The second and third sets saw UBC jump out to early and ultimately insurmountable leads, despite pushes by the Cougars towards the latter stages of sets.
"We knew we wanted to attack line against [Regina], so if we could get hands we knew we'd do well," said Schlagintweit of UBC's offensive attacking strategy. "Alessandra got the ball out there really well, and we were able to do just that."
UBC setter Alessandra Gentile distributed an effective offense, tallying a game-high 30 assists.
Thunderbird left-side Danielle Brisebois led all players with 10 kills on the match, continuing her evolution into an elite player at the CIS level. This being her first season with a consistent starting position, Brisebois has amassed a team leading 249 kills through 20 matches in her third season overall with the Thunderbirds. Her 3.04 kills-per-set average places her seventh among conference leaders in that category.
Regina fifth-year Michelle Sweeting led the visiting Cougars with seven kills in the match.
"It's not quite what we were wanting, we were hoping to come out a lot stronger," said Sweeting of the match. "The second set got the best of us – it always felt like we were one step behind."
Regina, with a record of 7-16, will not compete in the postseason this year. Tomorrow night's match will be the final for Sweeting and her fellow fifth years in right-side Chelsea Ziolkowski and libero Lindsay Braul.
"Our attitude is still to get better every time that we step on the court," said Sweeting. "Our motivation is to make it as hard as we can for UBC, and to just keep pushing back at them. We still want to play good games."
After the match, UBC's three graduating players were honoured by head coach Doug Reimer for their five-years of dedicated service to the Thunderbird program.
"It's emotional," said Keeping of the ceremony. "Doug knows how to pull at your heartstrings."
"I kept it together pretty well though," she quickly added.
With the victory the Thunderbirds improve to 12-11, further solidifying their berth into the playoffs. They now sit two games ahead of MacEwan (10-12), who is directly behind them in Canada West standings.
The two teams will face off once again on Saturday evening at UBC's War Memorial Gymnasium in the final regular season game of 2014-2015. The match will commence at 5:00 pm.
