BRANDON – The UBC Thunderbirds used a dynamic offensive attack to keep the Brandon Bobcats off-balance all-night, resulting in a straight sets (25-18, 25-23, 25-16) win.

Second-year outside hitter Kiera Van Ryk led all scorers with 13 kills on 25 swings, good for a .440 attack efficiency, living up to her reputation as one of the most dangerous attackers in the conference.

After dropping their first three matches of the season, the 'Birds have now won six straight sets improving their record to 2-3 while the Bobcats fall to 0-3.

"I'm very pleased with the effort of our team tonight," said UBC head coach Doug Reimer. "We're making progress, especially in terms of our composure on the court and hopefully we can gain some confidence heading into tomorrow night and be ready to compete again."

The first set saw a tough serve game and great defence from UBC, keeping the Bobcats from maintaining any momentum.



Brandon answered the bell early in the second set, jumping out to a 9-2 lead. UBC bench boss Doug Reimer called a time-out, allowing Victoria Behie and Siobhan Finan to serve the T-Birds back into the set. UBC went on a 7-0 run to narrow the distance before nearly taking the frame despite being outhit by the Bobcats.

The third set was all offence from UBC, as the T-Birds blasted their way to the set and match win.

The win was a big one for the T-Birds as they were looking to build momentum after struggling out of the gate early in the season.



"We struggled a bit in our past two weekends of letting them get the points and then also just giving it to them, so we're really working on taking what we can," said Kiera Van Ryk. "When we minimize our mistakes we don't lose our motivation. We just push through, which we did here tonight."

Van Ryk was the lone T-Bird to finish with double-digit kills while Nikala Majewski had 11 for the Bobcats.

The 'Birds will aim for a third straight win Saturday when they once again take on the Bobcats. First serve is 3:00 p.m. PT.