VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds men's volleyball team completed the weekend sweep of the visiting Brandon Bobcats Saturday with a straight sets victory.
 
The scores were 25-22, 25-19, and 28-26 in favour of the Thunderbirds.
 
On a night where the volleyball teams were honouring its alumni, it was Irvan Brar (Surrey, B.C.) who stole the show. The third-year outside hitter was spectacular, recording a team-high 19 kills while also serving an ace. Jarrid Ireland (Winnipeg) and Alex Russell (Surrey, B.C.) also reached double digits in kills with 15 and 11, respectively.
 
For the opposing Bobcats, they were led by Roy Ching, who had an impressive 22 kills to go along with a service ace.
  
"I think from the get-go we were a little bit sharper, they mixed their lineup up and I thought we did a good job at reacting to it," said UBC head coach Richard Schick. "The stability and the more consistency in our play was there."
 
"Anytime you can get a couple of wins, we got to take them and that's just another step to where we want to go, we want to take care of the teams that are below us."
 
Though the Birds were able to pull out the three-set victory, all of the games were close.
 
The third set was by far and away the most entertaining of the match with the 'Birds edging out the Bobcats 28-26. The teams were tied on 12 different occasions.
 
Brady Nault knocked down a kill to give Brandon a 23-22 lead. A UBC attack error gave the Bobcats a set point at 24-22, but the Thunderbirds won the next three points to earn the opportunity to end the match at 25-24.
 
Ching recorded a kill to level the score at 25-25. The score was 26-26 when the teams participated in the rally of the match, highlighted by incredible defensive efforts and overpowering smashes, UBC was able to pull out the point leading 27-26.
 
Joel Regehr (Courtenay, B.C.) then got the match-ending kill on the next play.
 
Brandon had a .192 hitting percentage for the match, while UBC hit at a .307 rate.
 
In the first set, the Bobcats jumped out to a 6-4 lead, however, the T-Birds were able to tie the set up at 10-10. UBC's strong offensive play propelled them to a 16-14 lead heading into the technical timeout.
 
The technical timeout seemed to help the Bobcats as they were able to fight back to tie it up at 21-21.
 
However, the Thunderbirds offence proved to strong, claiming four of the final five points to win the set 25-22, with the last point coming on a massive kill by Byron Keturakis (Surrey, B.C.).
 
The second set was much of the same, with the squads evenly splitting the first 16 points. UBC led by two at the technical timeout. Ching had six kills and Seth Friesen had three to provide most of the offence for Brandon to that point.
 
Coming out of the technical timeout, Brar was able to dial up a service ace forcing the Bobcats to call a timeout with the score 17-14 in favour of the home side.
 
From there on out UBC controlled the set eventually winning it 25-19, clinching the set on an impressive kill by Mat Guidi (Coquitlam, B.C.).
 
Brandon is now 5-11 in Canada West play, while UBC is 10-4.
 
Next weekend, the 'Birds fly east to take on the league-leading Alberta Golden Bears. Brandon will play at Winnipeg Thursday before hosting the Wesmen on Saturday.