VANCOUVER – It was a great bounce-back performance from the UBC Thunderbirds, as they performed better each set in a 3-0 (25-21, 25-16, 25-13) home win over the UFV Cascades. The visitors from Abbotsford came out swinging to begin the first, but as the set wore on the T-Birds found their footing and carried that momentum through the rest of the night.
Dawson Pratt had a great performance, serving three aces and landing 13 kills on a .435 hitting percentage.
Gavin Moes hit .471 for 11 kills along with seven digs, while
Mason Greves tied his career-high of five aces to go with 32 assists and five digs.
Jonas Van Huizen led the way for the Cascades with an efficient 11 kills and four digs. His brother Silas Van Huizen notched 17 assists along with a pair of kills.
"I think we started off…not apprehensive, but our decisions were pre-programmed," said Thunderbirds head coach
Mike Hawkins, reflecting on the opening set. "Once they settled in, they did a really good job of making decisions."
As mentioned, the Cascades came out strong in the front half of the first, going on a 9-2 run led by a strong defensive front to take a four-point lead. The T-Birds, however, hit back with five unanswered points of their own, including three straight aces from Pratt.
The Thunderbirds didn't relinquish the lead from there. They went up 23-18 before UFV scored three points in a row to add some tension, but a kill and then an ace from Moes ended the opening stanza at 25-21.
A kill and ace combo from Greves made it 10-6 UBC in the second, followed by an
Owen Lam kill to force a UFV timeout. A nice kill from Tyson Ardell stopped the T-Birds' run for the moment, but the home team kept the pressure on.
An ace from
Reeve Gingera put the lead up to 16-9, and the 'Birds kept the momentum going through the rest of the set to take a 2-0 overall lead.
UBC was firing to begin the third, with Pratt and
Kieran Robinson-Dunning combining on a big block to make it 3-0. The lead grew to 5-0 before Jonas Van Huizen landed a kill to get his team on the board.
The 'Birds were not deterred, with a kill from Moes stretching it out to 10-3. The lead grew to nine points before a kill and then an ace from Easton Sarich cut the deficit to six. That's as close as the visitors would get, however, as UBC went on another big run finished off by a kill from Lam at 25-13.
With just one more match to play in the regular season, the T-Birds staff were happy to see Gingera make his return to the lineup after missing the previous six matches. Lam also made an impact after he was slowed by a minor ailment last weekend.
"It's obviously a good time for us to get healthy," remarked Hawkins. "Not only does that give us more options in matches, but in training it allows us to be way more competitive. With those injuries it disrupted our training and we lost a little bit of the rhythm we'd built, but this week felt different and tonight you saw that."
With the win – combined with a Saskatchewan loss to Trinity Western in Langley – the Thunderbirds have clinched the third seed for the Canada West playoffs. Their quarterfinal opponent remains up in the air, with a whole host of teams vying for the sixth seed and the first-round bye that comes with it.
The Cascades, meanwhile, will be gunning for a win in the rematch on Saturday night, in order to clinch themselves a spot in the play-in round. That match begins at 6:00 p.m. (PT) at War Memorial Gym.
