VANCOUVER – For the second straight night the UBC Thunderbirds took down the UFV Cascades in three sets (25-12, 25-19, 25-20), finishing the regular a very impressive 11-0 at home.
With their playoff position already locked in (as the third seed) the 'Birds rested most of their regular starters and gave some of their younger players the chance to strut their stuff in extended action. Four players –
Alex Borowski,
Nicholas Johnson,
Nik Reimer and
Ryder Turner – made their first career starts, while
Calvin Hsu made his second.
Borowski led the team in kills with 10 along with three digs, while Turner landed eight kills on a .308 hitting percentage. Johnson dished out 34 assists to go with three digs, four blocks and two aces.
"I have no shortage of great things to say about the guys that played tonight," said Thunderbirds head coach
Mike Hawkins. "A guy like
Ryder Turner, whose nickname is "Glue Gun" on the team because he's the social glue of this program, to see him hit .308 and play with a lot of aggression, super proud of him. Guys like
Nik Reimer,
Alex Borowski,
Danny Cravioto-Ross, and the engineer behind it all
Nicholas Johnson, those are guys who day-in day-out work their bag off…their contributions to the team this year and to the program are immense."
Roan McCarthy had six kills, three digs and a pair of blocks for the visitors. Steven Yarad made the most his first career start with four kills, two digs and two blocks.
The first set had the largest score differential of the night, as the T-Birds went on a massive run in the back half of the action. Hudson Brandsma and Comrie Engbers landed early kills for the visitors to get them off to a solid start, but
Alex Emery landed a kill and block in quick succession to put the home team in front.
Up 12-10, the T-Birds then scored ten straight points on a strong serving run led by
Jesse Umoren. Borowski ended the set at 25-12 with back-to-back kills, landing five of them in the set overall.
Johnson started UBC off right in the second with some strong serves, but the Cascades fought their way back into things. A block from Yarad and McCarthy put them up by two, but the 'Birds soon took the lead right back with an ace from
Reeve Gingera.
The blue and gold remained in front for the remainder of the set, with Turner earning the final point of the frame with a nice cross-court kill.
The Cascades capitalized on a couple UBC errors to start the third up 4-2, but some errors of their own gave the lead back to the T-Birds a little later on in the set. A quick UBC burst capped by a block from Johnson and Cravioto-Ross put them up 20-16, and from there they were able to close it out. Turner again got the last laugh with a kill that made it 25-20.
With the win, the Thunderbirds exit the regular season with a record of 15-5. They have a bye next weekend before they face off against the 10-10 Brandon Bobcats in a best-of-three Canada West Quarterfinals series that begins on Friday, February 28th.
Being able to play at home for at least the first round of the postseason is not something that Hawkins is taking for granted.
"Playoffs are for sure a different animal, but having the familiarity of playing at home, sleeping in your own bed and having that control over your own schedule, it really helps," he remarked. "We know that Brandon's going to be a very interesting test, they're a good team playing with nothing to lose…the nice thing is that we now have two weeks to prepare for a strong opponent. We're ready for the challenge."
The T-Birds faced the Bobcats all the way back in the second week of the season, with both matches ending in 3-1 UBC wins. Brandon started the season slow but have come into their own in recent weeks, winning six of their last eight matches as they head into the playoffs.
