WINNIPEG – They might have started a little slow, but the UBC Thunderbirds men's volleyball squad certainly finished strong as they improved to 4-0 with a second road win of the weekend over the Manitoba Bisons (22-25, 25-17, 25-20, 25-21).
 
The result makes this the first time since the 2017-18 season that the T-Birds have started Canada West play 4-0, and is the best start under head coach Mike Hawkins.
 
Dawson Pratt had a fantastic performance with 12 kills, seven digs on a .500 hitting percentage. Mason Greves dished out 48 assists to go with nine digs and two aces in an all-around effort. The middle duo of Kieran Robinson-Dunning and Alex Emery were very efficient with a combined fourteen kills and nine blocks with just one attack errors.
 
The Bisons were able to play from the front for vast majority of the first set, never taking a commanding lead but always staying just a couple of points or so ahead of the T-Birds. Emery and Reeve Gingera teamed up on a block that tied the score at 12 points each, but the 'Birds were unable to take the lead for themselves.
 
As the set wound down UBC again found themselves down just a single point at 21-20, but a powerful strike from Heppner got a crucial point for the Bisons. The hosts took the opening set 25-22, putting the pressure on the Thunderbirds.


 
That pressure suited the blue and gold well, as they did to the Bisons in the second set what the Bisons had just done to them in the first. A thunderous ace from Gavin Moes made it 9-5 in favour of the visitors, and they didn't let up from there as the lead ballooned to 13-5 before the Bisons put a stop to Moes' serving run.
 
UBC never looked back from there, going up by as many as nine points before Pratt eventually closed out the frame with a kill on the outside at 25-17. The T-Birds hit a blistering .423 as a team in the second, with 15 kills and four attack errors compared to just six kills and five attack errors for the Bisons.
 
The third set began with more of the same, as a Pratt attack scored the opening point and an ace from Greves soon after forced an immediate Manitoba timeout, down 4-0. The Bisons did fight back, and past the halfway point of the set the teams found themselves knotted up at 16 apiece.
 
That's when Moes landed an impressive kill as he was leaning backwards in the air, followed by a wipe off the hands as the Alberta native landed his eighth kill of the day. The 'Birds ended up closing the set on a 5-1 burst, as they turned a 1-0 deficit on the scoreboard into a 2-1 lead.


 
Aiming for a delayed sweep, the Thunderbirds again started strong in the fourth, going up 11-5 following yet another Pratt kill. While the Bisons continued to fight hard, they could never close the gap from there as UBC made it three set victories in a row.
 
The T-Birds will now enjoy a bye next weekend, and they will hope that their early-season momentum won't take any sort of hit when they next take the court on November 7th and 8th on the road against the Thompson Rivers WolfPack.