T-Birds remain perfect with straight sets win

VANCOUVER – The third set was a battle, but the UBC Thunderbirds managed to pull out a 3-0 win (25-17, 25-11, 25-22) over the MacEwan Griffins at War Memorial Gym.

Emelie Silovs shined with a career-high seven kills on a .636 hitting percentage, along with two blocks and two aces.

Olivia Furlan moved from libero to outside hitter due to UBC’s ongoing injury woes and put up seven kills, six digs, three blocks and two aces. Trinity Solecki led the team in kills with eight and also had four digs.

Arden Butler recorded eight kills and four digs for the visitors, while Alyshia Bryks put up six kills, six digs, three blocks and three aces.

The T-Birds notched an incredible 15 aces as a team, as they consistently put the Griffins under pressure with their serves. They were humming offensively for much of the night, outside of a massive third set rally by the visitors that they were able to stave off in the end.

“We served pretty well, and our best offence was pretty solid,” said Thunderbirds head coach Doug Reimer. “In the third set obviously we started to make some execution errors…we just gave up a couple big runs and that’s going to happen.”

The T-Birds’ serving was hot from the get-go, with two aces from Akash Grewal followed by a kill from Silovs making it 7-2 UBC to begin the first. The lead pretty much stayed between around five to eight points for the rest of the set, as the Thunderbirds held the Griffins at arm’s length.

A block from the duo of Furlan and Jocelyn Lenarcic was followed by an ace from Ella Ungemach to make it 21-14 for the home team, before Grewal eventually finished off the set with a kill at 25-17.

Issy Robertshaw got UBC going in the second with back-to-back aces, and Silovs had a pair of aces of her own just a few points later to make it 7-3. The lead continued to grow, with yet another ace – this time from Lenarcic – stretching it out to 15-6.

The T-Birds didn’t let up from there, making the middle frame a blowout. Lernarcic and Ungemach teamed up for a block to make it 23-11, before a kill from Ungemach and an attack error from the Griffins ended the set.

UBC started well once again in the third, this time led by Furlan. The veteran libero-turned-hitter combined with Silovs on a block before landing back-to-back kills as the T-Birds began to pull away. A Solecki ace made it 14-6, forcing a timeout from the MacEwan sideline.

From there though, things began to unravel somewhat for the Thunderbirds. The Griffins reeled off an impressive 13-3 run to tie the score at 18, before taking a 20-19 lead soon after.

The T-Birds, facing the prospect of dropping a set for the first time in six weeks, responded with a push of their own. Tied up at 22, a kill from Grewal was followed by two straight aces from Ungemach to end the night.

UBC now has a chance to make it a perfect 10-0 to end the semester if they can win the rematch with MacEwan on Saturday night. The match is scheduled to begin at 6:00 p.m. (PT) at War Memorial Gym.