VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds men's volleyball team wrapped up its three-match tour of California with a 3-1 defeat against the Pepperdine Waves, the 11th-ranked team in NCAA Div. I-II, in Malibu, Calif., on Friday.
 
Mat Guidi (Coquitlam, B.C.) had a team-high 11 kills for UBC. Irvan Brar (Surrey, B.C.) and Mac McNicol (Calgary) had nine and eight, respectively.
 
Setter Byron Keturakis (Surrey, B.C.) had 32 assists and six blocks, while Jacob Smith (Surrey, B.C.) recorded 13 digs.
 
UBC opened the match with four straight points with Connor MacCuspie (North Vancouver) on the service line, and eventually went up 9-3 on a kill from McNicol. Pepperdine closed the gap but still trailed 17-14 after another McNicol kill.

However, the Waves closed the set on an 11-2 run to win 25-19.
 
In the second set, the Thunderbirds once again opened quickly, going ahead 9-5, with a McNicol ace and a Brar kill forcing the Waves to call timeout.  Middle Alex Russell (Surrey, B.C.) knocked down a kill to put UBC up 15-9 and an ace by Brar capped off a run of four straight points to make it 21-14. Russell and Guidi then teamed up to record a block to finish off the set at 25-17.
 
Both teams battled point-for-point to start the third with Pepperdine holding a slim 10-8 lead early. McNicol replied, as his kill was the first of six points in a row for the Thunderbirds. Another mini 4-1 gave UBC a 19-14 advantage. Pepperdine closed to 22-20 and then won seven of the next 10 points for the come-from-behind triumph in the third set.
 
In the final set, the T-Birds were ahead 5-4 early but the hosts were able to turn things around to jump ahead 13-6. Pepperdine was able to build its lead down the stretch to finish off the match.
 
The Thunderbirds will return home to face Brandon Jan. 15-16 in the team's first Canada West league games of 2016.