WINNIPEG – In their first meeting since the Manitoba Bisons dashed their hopes of a national championship three-peat in the U SPORTS Semifinal back in March, the UBC Thunderbirds marched into Winnipeg on Friday evening and grabbed a 3-1 victory (27-25, 21-25, 25-22, 25-22) to spoil the Bisons' home opener.
If you're going to take down the defending national champs you need strong performances across the board, and that's exactly what UBC got.
Aimee Skinner was fantastic in her first Canada West road match, leading the team in both kills (20) and digs (12). Lucy Borowski had 11 digs along with 13 kills, while Emelie Silovs tallied a highly efficient seven kills, four digs and three blocks over the middle.
The statistical highlight, however, came from Akash Grewal, who continued her torrid start to the season from the service line with five aces to go with 15 kills and seven digs.
That made it 18 aces in her first three matches of the year, and 146 in Canada West play for her career, breaking the program record previously held by Olivia Furlan (143). The Vancouver native is now just one back of cracking the top-ten in conference history, and 29 away from equalling the all-time record.
Raya Surinx led the way for the Bisons with 15 kills and nine digs, but no other Manitoba attacker landed more than six kills. Eve Catojo had six with six blocks in the middle as well.
Perhaps fittingly considering the calibre of the two teams involved, the first set of this matchup went past the 25-point barrier.
The Bisons scored three of the first four points to begin the night, but the T-Birds responded by ripping off six straight, capped by a kill from Jocelyn Lenarcic, to take an early lead of their own. They maintained that advantage through the middle portion of the set, with kills from Grewal and Skinner stretching the lead out to as much as 15-10.
Skinner continued to fire, and her power-hitting on the outside helped put her team in the driver's seat, up 23-19 late on in the frame. But the Bisons roared back, knotting the score up at 24-24 and forcing some extra volleyball.
A Surinx kill set up set point for Manitoba, but the T-Birds rallied with a Lenarcic block followed by back-to-back kills from Grewal to go up 1-0 overall.
The Thunderbirds suffered their only setback of the night in the second set, in another frame of action that was tight throughout. Tied up at 20-20, the Bisons came through with a big run at the end to take it 25-21 and avoid going down 2-0.
After falling behind 14-11 in the all-important third set, the T-Birds reeled off a run of their own, with a couple of kills from Silovs and some very strong serving pressure from Grewal helping score six consecutive points.
Kills from Skinner and Borowski kept the UBC momentum going, forcing a second timeout in quick succession from the Bisons as they found themselves down 21-16.
The home team didn't just roll over though, and they had a 5-0 run of their own to tie the set up once again. A kill over the middle from Lenarcic off a Manitoba over-pass stemmed the bleeding for the T-Birds, and not too long after that she teamed up with Kylee Glanville for the set-winning block.
Facing a must-win fourth, the Bisons came out with plenty of fire as the Thunderbirds tried to match them point-for-point. Down 7-5, a pair of backrow kills from Borowski and Skinner evened things up at seven points apiece, before a strong swing over the middle from Leonora Barbulovich-Nad gave the visitors a slim lead.
Silovs got her teammates fired up with a highlight defensive play in the middle part of the frame, single-handedly lining up and rejecting a backrow attack from Andi Almonte. A shared block by her and Grewal a couple points later sent the Bisons into another timeout, as they tried to wrest momentum back into their favour.
While they were able to close the gap enough to tie the score on a couple of occasions, the Bisons never regained the lead. A Barbulovich-Nad ace put the Thunderbirds up 20-17, and despite a late push from the home team the night ended with a 25-22 fourth set victory and the first road win of the season for UBC.
After a day off tomorrow, the T-Birds and Bisons will face off again in a Sunday matinee matchup. That clash is set for 11:00 a.m. (PT) at the Investors Group Athletic Centre in Winnipeg.
