LANGLEY, B.C. – While the match didn't begin in their favour, the Thunderbirds found their form as play went along and won the final three sets in a row over the Montreal Carabins (21-25, 25-17, 25-21, 25-17) to secure their place in Sunday's fifth-place match.
The T-Birds received plenty of contributions off the bench, including from
Aimee Skinner who was named UBC's Player of the Game with eight kills, six digs and three aces on a .500 hitting percentage.
Lucy Borowski had 12 kills and 12 digs, both team-highs, while
Issy Robertshaw recorded 20 assists, four kills, two digs and three aces.
"Our serving settled down, and that put some pressure on them," said T-Birds head coach
Doug Reimer on what turned things around. "Offensively, Lucy got going, Aimee for sure was a difference-maker…overall the people that came in helped us with good energy – Ella [Ungemach] and Mackenzie [Campbell] as well helped us and we just played calmer and better UBC volleyball."
Milica Djordjevic and Sephora Menye Obele each had 13 kills for the Carabins, with Djordjevic also adding three digs and a match-high five blocks.
The two teams were difficult to separate in the first half of the opening set, with both sides hitting the ball very well. The first attack errors didn't come until the score read 12-11 in favour of Montreal, from which point
Emelie Silovs and
Elizabeth Lee recorded back-to-back blocks to nudge the T-Birds out in front.
That momentum was to be short-lived, however, as the Carabins kept up their attacking intensity as the set went along. After a run of service errors from both teams, the RSEQ side ripped off a 6-1 run late that helped turn what had been a very close set into a 25-21 victory following a final block from Djordjevic.
The Thunderbirds came out hot to begin the second, with a Borowski kill marking the beginning of five straight UBC points to put them up 6-1. That was followed by four unanswered from Montreal, which was subsequently followed by a 4-1 burst by the T-Birds as momentum swung back and forth.
After the Carabins called timeout following an attack error that made it 19-14 UBC, they came out of the stoppage with consecutive kills from Florence Lapointe and Anouk Mathieu Van Rossum. But the T-Birds again had the answer, as
Jocelyn Lenarcic proved to be a one-woman wrecking crew on a crucial point over the middle, rebuffing multiple Montreal attempts in a row before shoving the ball behind the defence for a kill.
The Thunderbirds took the set 25-17 in the end, and took an early lead to begin the third as well. While the Carabins soon reeled off a run of their own, they could never go up by more than two points.
The turning point came when Robertshaw and
Leonora Barbulovich-Nad combined on a block, the beginning of five consecutive UBC points that put them up 17-14. The Thunderbirds never trailed again from there, with Borowski landing the final blow to put her team up 2-1 in set count.
The fourth set was the most comfortable of the afternoon for the T-Birds, as they went up big early and led wire-to-wire. After a Lenarcic ace and Silovs kill made it 13-5, the Carabins were never able to cut the deficit to fewer than five points as UBC cruised to the win.
The result means that the Thunderbirds will play one more match this season, as they face the Saint Mary's Huskies in the consolation final at noon (PT) on Sunday. The AUS champs are coming off an impressive five-set victory over the Thompson Rivers WolfPack in their own consolation semi, and will aim for two wins in two over Canada West opponents.
"We haven't had a lot of time to prep for them," remarked Reimer on the Huskies. "Obviously they came ready to play their game today against TRU, and we need to prepare for a new team we haven't seen. They've got some good international players, some experience, so we have to play with the same sort of consistency we had in the last half of the match today."
