In front of a raucous school day crowd at War Memorial Gym, the UBC Thunderbirds got back in the win column with a 3-1 (25-21, 28-30, 25-13, 28-26) victory over the MacEwan Griffins to improve to 7-2 on the season.
 
The high-energy audience made more noise than the home team has heard all year.
 
"It was a different atmosphere that we aren't used to," said Keira Van Ryk. "Having a lot of kids in here screaming their heads off is a new thing. When you get those big points and they go crazy it's always fun."
 

VOLLEYBALL ?? | School day is underway with lots of local elementary school students enjoying the action between @ubctbirds vs @MacEwanGriffins at War Memorial Gym #GoBirdsGo pic.twitter.com/oN24XOps5N

— UBC Thunderbirds (@ubctbirds) November 24, 2017

Head Coach Doug Reimer thought school day provided both an advantage and a learning opportunity.
 
"I think this a great event for us to do to expose a lot of younger kids to our sport and to women playing at a high level. Having said that, I think we did not handle the different kind of energy and noise that was there very well. It was a good experience we need to be better at handling."
 
The Griffins put forward quite the effort, keeping pace with the potent T-Birds in the first set when Cassidy Kinsella's kill out wide tied it up at 10-10, the two teams traded points all the way to a 15-15 draw at the technical timeout. Van Ryk unloaded down the line on her fifth kill to knot it up at 21-21, before a ball handing violation gave the T-Birds a 25-21 first set victory.
 
MacEwan held a 12-8 lead in the second until Olivia Furlan cracked a cross-court kill and Van Ryk added two more to make it a one-point game. Gentile evened it up at 13-13 with a sneaky tip and the 'Birds took a 16-14 lead into the break. Van Ryk crushed an ace to give the 'Birds and opportunity to close it out, but Kinsella responded with a kill of her own, and neither team gave an inch as the set extended to 28-28. Kate Rozendaal finally snuck a hit through the UBC block to take the second set 30-28.
 
The T-Birds jumped out to a 6-1 lead to start the third set and rolled to a 25-13 win.
 
MacEwan held a narrow lead for most of the fourth, but the 'Birds stormed back after an Anna Price kill to make it 19-19 and went ahead 24-20 on a Griffin error. The visiting MacEwan squad kept pushing and fought off 4 set points before another Van Ryk kill gave UBC a set point that they converted on a Attieh kill to take it 28-26.
 


Van Ryk finished with 24 kills on the afternoon to lead all T-Birds on offense.
 
"After losing that second set in a tight game, we wanted to show we were the better team in the gym and we wanted to prove that we could make a statement and that's what we did."
 
Furlan added 9 kills, 11 digs and 9 assists, while Gentile racked up 40 assists with 12 digs.
 
The Griffins out-blocked the 'Birds 9.5 to 3.0, as Lauren Holms stuffed UBC 5 times, and Kinsella lead MacEwan with 14 kills. McKenna Stevenson had 10 kills and 4 digs in the loss.
 

VOLLEYBALL ?? | @ubctbirds outlast @MacEwanGriffins 3 sets to 1 & after 7 match points claim the 4th & deciding set 28-26. Plenty of great young fan support on school day here at War Memorial Gym #GoBirdsGo pic.twitter.com/f0Trqepjul

— UBC Thunderbirds (@ubctbirds) November 24, 2017

Coach Reimer was quick to give the Griffins credit for an efficient performance, but recognized room for improvement.
 
"We were sloppy at times I thought we could have had better control. We didn't do a good enough job taking away things we knew they would bring...on the blocking and defensive side of things.They're a good team, they're just having a little trouble closing things out and its dangerous when you give teams that many opportunities."
 
The two teams will square off again at War Memorial Gym Saturday evening at 5 pm.