VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds extended their unbeaten streak to six games with a 3-0 (25-16, 25-23, 25-15) victory over the MacEwan University Griffins (0-6) to sweep the weekend series at War Memorial Gym.
Fifth-year hitter Elise Petit had a team-high 10 kills and 11 digs for the T-Birds, Akash Grewal put up a season's best nine kills with a .600 hitting percentage, and
Cara Kovacs added five kills with four blocks and an ace in the win.
"We weren't executing particularly well at the beginning of the first set, but we finished so much stronger," said UBC head coach
Doug Reimer. "I think that was important. I thought the way our middles blocked really well and set a good tone stopped some of what MacEwan was bringing. We got better in terms of not stopping our own runs with serving errors, like Lucy [Borowski] in the first set and several other players as well. I also thought Akash [Grewal] brought a ton when she came in and was ready to go tonight – that was probably the most noticeable, but others came in and made contributions as well. That really helps us and makes us harder to prepare for."
Mariah Bereziuk led MacEwan with eight kills on the evening, Sarah McGee had five kills with four blocks and an ace, while Arden Butler contributed four kills with three digs and two blocks for the Griffins.
MacEwan led early in the first set before Kovacs served up an ace to tie it at 10-10 and an Emma Doyon block increased the UBC lead to 14-11. Petit pushed the cushion to 21-16 on a kill and Lucy Borowski scored with an ace on the next point to force a MacEwan timeout.
Brynn Pasin made it 23-16 on a kill and a Borowski ace lifted the 'Birds to a 24-16 set point that they closed out on a Griffins error.
A McGee block in the second set gave MacEwan a 10-6 edge, but UBC responded and tied it with a Pasin kill before taking the lead on a Grewal block at 16-15. The close set continued with a Butler ace for the Griffins at 20-18 before a Kovacs block evened it up at 20-20. Setter
Kayla Oxland turned and fired a kill for a 22-20 lead that the 'Birds maintained to a 25-23 set win on a MacEwan service error.
Doyon dropped an ace for an 11-6 lead in the third set and Grewal tallied three straight kills for a 14-7 advantage. The Thunderbirds continued to roll and, despite a McGee kill that extended the match on UBC's first set point, the home team captured the straight sets victory at 25-15 with a Grewal kill.
The T-Birds now enter into a Canada West bye week before resuming conference play on November 18
th and 19
th to host the University of Alberta Pandas at War Memorial Gym. The Griffins also are on home court in their next series against the Calgary Dinos, as they continue pushing for their first conference victory of the season.
