Vancouver – Veterans stepped up to lead the way as the UBC Thunderbirds grinded out a 3-1 (25-14, 25-21, 20-25, 25-12) victory Saturday, for senior night at War Memorial Gym.
With the win the T-Birds concluded the Canada West regular season with a 13-11 record good for seventh spot in the standings to set up a best of three quarter-final playoff series against the number two seed Mount Royal Cougars beginning next Friday. It was the eighth straight setback for the Bobcats who failed to qualify for post season action.
Leading the way for UBC was
Gabrielle Attieh with a game high 14 kills and 17.5 points. The four graduating seniors who were recognized post game made their presence felt including
Tessa Davis with 11 kills and 12 digs,
Anna Price chipped in with eight kills and eight digs,
Siobhan Finan added two kills and five digs while
Laura Worsley recorded a team high 13 digs. For the Bobcats it was Rayvn Wiebe setting the pace by matching the game high 14 kills to go along with 11 digs and 15 points while Nicole Ashauer chipped in with 10 digs, three service aces and 13 digs.
"Number one was having all four seniors contribute and do a lot of good things was great," said UBC head coach
Doug Reimer when asked about his takeaways post game. Gabby (Attieh) had an incredible number of touches on blocks and a hitting efficiency that was off the charts (.583) so that's a good sign and helped make the rest of us better. Given the fact that we've been working around a few different lineups due to sickness I'm pretty happy and credit to Brandon who are scrappy and play great defence and made us battle through some long rallies."
For a second straight night UBC started strong and built an early 8-5 advantage on the strength of two Attieh kills but Brandon would answer back with a run of their own and briefly take a 10-9 lead following an Ashauer kill. The 'Birds would then get back on a roll thanks to a couple of impressive kills from Davis and Price down the line as well as a
Brynn Pasin service ace ahead of a Finan rejection heading into the technical timeout up 16-10. Out of the break Davis and Price ended long rallies with a couple more kills each while Attieh counted two more of her own set high four kills to help UBC take the first set 25-14.
The 'Birds opened the second frame soaring to a 6-1 lead which caused Brandon to call an early timeout but going forward it would be Price and Attieh setting the tone for the home team. Price would connect on three of her four kills in quick succession to pace UBC to a 19-13 lead while it was Wiebe's three kills and Ashauer's set high five kills that kept the Bobcats within striking distance trailing 23-19 late. Another demonstrative Attieh kill, one of her three in the period followed by a rejection helped UBC secure the 25-21 second set victory.
The teams came out trading points to start the third set and it was one of Ashauer's two kills that broke an early deadlock to give Brandon an 11-10 edge. Wiebe would then take charge with a string of her set high five kills to help the Bobcats go ahead 21-16. Attieh and
Cara Kovacs would answer by sprinkling in four kills each for the hosts but it was Ashauer who was heard from again adding two service aces and a sneaky setter dump to extend the lead to 23-18 ahead of capturing the third frame 25-20.
The fourth set quickly turned into the
Tessa Davis show as the graduating senior dominated play with eight kills and three block assists while Attieh added three kills, one block and two block assists. UBC enjoyed leads of 6-1, 16-7 and 23-13 following a Davis kill before another Price kill would set up match point at 24-13. Fittingly it was Attieh delivering the final blow with the block to claim the final set 25-13 and the 3-1 victory.
The seventh seeded T-Birds will next travel to meet the number two seed Mount Royal Cougars to begin Canada West best of three quarter-final action next Friday, February 21.
