EDMONTON (U SPORTS) – Fourth-year outside hitter Irvan Brar finished with a tournament-high 26 kills, leading the No. 3 UBC Thunderbirds to a four-set quarter-final win (25-22, 25-20, 22-25, 25-17) over the No. 6-seeded New Brunswick Varsity Reds, Friday night at the Saville Community Sports Centre.

The win sends the Thunderbirds to the semifinal of the 2017 U SPORTS FOG Men's Volleyball Championship, and a meeting with the host, and seventh-seeded Alberta Golden Bears. UNB, meanwhile, will fall into the consolation bracket, and will take on the No. 2 Manitoba Bisons Saturday afternoon.
 
Along with Brar's 26 kills, UBC received contributions from Cam Fennema (15 kills, one dig), and Byron Keturakis (game-high 52 assists, two aces). Brar also added two digs, and was named UBC Player of the Match.

"It was a lot of fun," commented Keturakis. "We came out and passed well, we served well. We didn't always execute but we stuck with it and good things happened. Our middles hit some really good balls, just setting up those guys was a lot of fun."


 
Eivind Andersen led the Varsity Reds with 17 kills, also chipping in with a game-high 11 digs, and was the UNB Player of the Match.
 
"I thought we were good at times tonight. I don't think we served as well as we normally do, and our serve receive also wasn't as crisp. But, it is the first match at nationals - we got some of those jitters out, we are getting more and more comfortable playing in this facility," said UBC head coach Kerry MacDonald. "I expect both of those aspects of our game to be a little better tomorrow."
 
Brar was absolutely lethal in the opening set, ripping in 10 kills on a staggering 18 attempts, while Fennema added four.
 
"Irvan has been a consummate leader for us," continued MacDonald. "He does that on the regular. He's the kind of guy who rises to the occasion, and he did it again tonight."
 

We are heading to the @USPORTSca MVB National Semi Final. Game goes tomorrow at 6:30pm MST. Couldn't be prouder of this group. #process https://t.co/gZpEV3tK3J

— Kerry MacDonald (@Kerryjmac) March 18, 2017

Despite being the heavy underdog on Friday, UNB kept the first set tight, earning a solid 13 kills on 29 attempts. But the effort from Brar was too much to overcome, as UBC took the first set 25-22. 
 
"I thought we played at a pretty good level. Do I think we played our best ball? No. At times we played a very efficient game, and the blocks were fairly even between both teams," UNB coach Dan McMorran commented after the game. "I thought we played at a pretty good level, but our defence needed to make a few more dig at a few key times. They are a good blocking team, so when we are out of system, we are hitting against a very big team. All in all, we are disappointed, we aren't playing in the semifinal, but I thought it was a pretty good level of (volleyball) for fans tonight."
 
That level from UNB was evident early in the second, as they raced out to a surprising 8-1 lead. Despite three kills from Andersen, the Varsity Reds couldn't maintain their strong offence in the second, eventually falling 25-20. Eight attack errors, to go along with a -0.45 attack percentage, and six more kills from Brar contributed to the set win for UBC.
 
The teams played incredibly even volleyball in the third, exchanging massive back-row attacks. Andersen added seven kills to his total, while Sam Alves chipped in four in a set that saw 13 ties. The sixth-seeded Varsity Reds improved their attack by over .600 points in the third, as they clawed their way to a scrappy 25-22 win.
 
However, the high-flying Thunderbirds were too much for UNB to overcome, falling in the fourth set. UBC's defence also played a massive role in the fourth set, scoring on three blocks, while limiting UNB to just nine fourth-set kills. UBC finished with 65 kills on Friday to UNB's 48.
 

Keep on rolling! The @universityofbc men's #volleyball team won their quarterfinal match against the UNB Varsity Reds. Irvan Brar led the 'Birds with 26 kills. The team has a semifinal matchup tomorrow against Canada West rivals Alberta. GoBirdsGo CHAMPSZN

A post shared by UBC Thunderbirds (@ubctbirds) on Mar 17, 2017 at 11:27pm PDT

UBC will now face a familiar foe in the national semifinal, and the same team they met in last week's Canada West bronze medal match. UBC was able to capture the conference medal with a decisive 3-0 win in Winnipeg, their second triumph over Alberta this season.
 
"We played them last week, and were successful." continued MacDonald. "We are definitely going to have to go back and look and see what we did well that night, and build off of that. They are a great team and I am expecting a great match."
 
First serve of the first semifinal is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. MT/ 5:30 p.m. PT tomorrow night at the Saville Community Sports Centre, and on USPORTS.LIVE.

"We're excited, they're a really good team and they're going to be at home," said Keturakis of Alberta. "It's going to be a great matchup, I'm just excited for a battle." 
 
- with files from Christina Donnelly
 
STAT LEADERS
 
Complete Stats: http://en.usports.ca/championships/mvball/2017/championship
 
UBC
Kills: Irvan Brar (26)
Points: Irvan Brar (28)
Blocks: Byron Keturakis (3)
Digs: Mat Guidi (7)
Service aces: Joel Regehr (4)
 
Player of the Match: Irvan Brar.
 
New Brunswick
Kills: Eivind Anderson (17)
Points: Eivind Anderson (19)
Blocks: Tristen Burridge and Elliot Allison (3)
Digs: Eivind Andersed (11)
Service aces: Tristen Burridge (2)
 
Player of the Match: Eivind Andersen
 
SCHEDULE & RESULTS (All times MT)
 
Friday, March 17
1:00 p.m. QF 1: No. 1 Trinity Western 3 vs. No. 8 Waterloo 0 (25-18, 25-15, 25-23)
2:30 p.m. QF 2: No. 5 McMaster 3 vs. No. 4 Laval 2 (25-16, 25-11, 23-25, 19-25, 17-15)
6:30 p.m. QF 3: No. 2 Manitoba 1 vs. No. 7 Alberta 3 (18-25, 25-23, 21-25, 16-25)
8:00 p.m. QF 4: No. 3 UBC 3 vs No. 6 New Brunswick 1 (25-22, 25-20, 22-25, 25-17)
 
Saturday, March 18
1:00 p.m. Consolation #1: No. 8 Waterloo vs No. 4 Laval (USPORTS.LIVE)
2:30 p.m. Consolation #2: No. 2 Manitoba vs. No. 6 UNB (USPORTS.LIVE)
6:30 p.m. Semifinal #1: No. 7 Alberta vs. No. 3 UBC (USPORTS.LIVE)
8:00 p.m. Semifinal #2: No. 1 Trinity Western vs. No. 5 McMaster (USPORTS.LIVE)
 
Sunday, March 19
12:00 p.m. 5th place (USPORTS.LIVE)
3:00 p.m. Bronze medal (USPORTS.LIVE)
6:00 p.m. Championship final (USPORTS.LIVE)
 
About U SPORTS
 
U SPORTS is the national brand for University Sports in Canada. Every year, over 12,000 student-athletes and 500 coaches from 56 universities vie for 21 national  championships in 12 different sports. U SPORTS also provides higher performance international opportunities for Canadian student-athletes at Winter and Summer Universiades, as well as numerous world university championships. For further information, visit usports.ca or follow us on:
 
Twitter: @USPORTSca
Facebook: @USPORTSCanada
YouTube: @USPORTSca
Instagram: @USPORTSca
Snapchat: @USPORTSca