VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds took a 1-0 lead in their Canada West quarter-final series by beating the Manitoba Bisons 3-1 at War Memorial Gym in Vancouver on Thursday night.
BOX SCORE
UBC spread out its attack amongst five players, who all reached double digits in points.
Jarrid Ireland recorded nine kills and ten digs to lead a Thunderbirds team which hosted its first playoff match since the spring of 2008.
David Zeyha,
Alex Russell and
Ben Chow each added eight kills. Chow also dug up ten balls on the night.
Ian Perry led the way on the defensive end with 12 digs.
Dane Pischke had 11 kills for Manitoba while Derek Nieroda led all players with 15 digs.
“I thought in the sets we won, we did what we wanted to do serving, blocking and on defence. I thought we did what we came to do tonight,” said UBC head coach
Richard Schick.
MVB: T-Birds v. Manitoba (Feb. 14, 2013) Gallery
Milan Nikic provided UBC with a strong start in the fourth set opening with an ace. The team then went on to take the next four points, with Russell getting a kill and two big combo blocks (with Ireland and Zeyha).
The experienced Bisons fought back as Chris Voth knocked down a kill to close the gap to just 8-6 in UBC's favour. The Thunderbirds replied by winning the next four points to establish a 12-6 advantage. The teams continued to trade kills to the technical timeout with the score 16-10 for the hosts.
Evan Schmidt's kill brought Manitoba to within four points at 19-15 but UBC captured six of the next seven points, which included a deflating out-of-rotation call against the Bisons, to win the match.
Noah Derksen capped off the night with an ace, one of eight for UBC.
Down 3-2 early in the third, UBC tied the set on an attack error from Manitoba's Evan Jackson. Then Russell stepped back to the service line and started a run of five straight points to put his team up 8-3. A Zeyha service ace sent the teams into the technical timeout with the Thunderbirds ahead 16-9. From there, the teams basically traded points before UBC finally clinched the set on a kill from Russell.
In the second set, the Thunderbirds turned 14-7 deficit into a 20-18 lead on a big spurt, which included three block assists from
Chris Howe, but the Bisons remained poised and were able to turn the tables on UBC to win seven of the final 10 points of the second set. Voth gave his team a big spark when he knocked down a kill that put his team back up 21-20, causing UBC to call a timeout.
“I was impressed with the way we just settled and re-focused,” said Schick about his team's performance after the loss in the second set. “We kind of got a little bit away from it, in regards to what we were doing serving and stuff like that, and I think we got back on track for the third and fourth set.”
The Thunderbirds came out strong to take the first set 25-15, powered by their dominance at the net. UBC recorded five team blocks compared to Manitoba's two and the final point emphasized this fact as Zeyha and Russell teamed up to knock the Bisons' final attack back into the open court.
After splitting the first 10 points with the Bisons, the Thunderbirds proceeded to go on a 13-3 run, with some help from Nikic on the service line, to pull away.
The T-Birds recorded 16 team blocks on the night, compared to 10 for the Bisons, who were also held to .015 hitting.
“Manitoba's the best blocking team in the country and I think we're up there too so you know it's going to be a battle at the net and tonight, we won that battle,” said Schick. “But at the same time, we know that it's a long ways from being over. They've got a lot of proud guys over there and they're not going to go quietly. They're going to come out fired up on Saturday as well.”
Saturday is when this quarter-final series resumes, with the first serve at War Memorial Gym coming at 7 p.m.
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