BRANDON, Man. – Heading out on the road after a tough home series against the WolfPack, the Thunderbirds (5-2) put together a strong performance against the Bobcats (0-5), winning in straight sets (25-15, 25-18, 25-20).
Ella Ungemach led all players in all three of kills (12), digs (11) and aces (4), notching a season-high in both kills and aces. Issy Robertshaw did a great job of sharing the wealth while orchestrating the UBC offence, racking up 35 assists while seven different T-Birds had four or more kills.
Eight different Thunderbirds got on the board with a kill in the opening set, one where UBC scored five of the first six points and never let the Bobcats get close to them from there. A run of six unanswered in the middle of the frame, capped by kills from Emelie Silovs and Aimee Skinner, increased the lead to 17-6, the largest of the set for the visitors.
The T-Birds were able to cruise to the 25-point mark from there, with an Akash Grewal ace followed soon after by a Jocelyn Lenarcic kill to put UBC up 1-0 in the match.
The Bobcats responded well in the second, ripping off a 6-2 run to begin the set. But the Thunderbirds soon clawed themselves back into a tie game, and took their first lead of the second off back-to-back kills from Skinner.
The Thunderbirds pulled away fully late in the set, with a run of six points in a row that powered through a pair of Brandon timeouts. That allowed them to claim an eventual 25-18 set win and put themselves just one away from victory.
While they were made to work for it once again, the T-Birds pulled out the match win in the third. That was despite the Bobcats keeping pace with them throughout, and even taking a lead at 20-19 as they tried to keep themselves alive.
The T-Birds' clutch gene came through again at that point, however, with consecutive Ungemach kills sparking a run of six straight to end the night.
The two sides will be back in action at 3:00 p.m. (PT) tomorrow, with the T-Birds aiming to improve to 4-0 on the road to begin the campaign.
