November 11 - The seventh-ranked UBC men’s volleyball team earned a hard-fought weekend series split with fifth-ranked Manitoba, responding from a straight sets defeat last night with a convincing 3-1 win over the Bisons Saturday at War Memorial Gym (25-17, 25-22, 19-25, 25-14).

The Thunderbirds came out gunning as soon as they stepped onto the floor and were in control for the duration of the first frame. Putting together a pair of solid runs – both times with Christoph Eichbaum on serve – the Point Grey squad scored five straight points early in the set to push ahead 10-5 before another four in a row made it 22-15 en route to the 25-17 victory.

“That’s a solid response from the guys after we knew we had kind of given one away last night,” said UBC head coach Richard Schick. “We never gave up and we fought hard through till the finish. We easily could have walked away with back-to-back losses this weekend, but we took it to heart and played a better game tonight against a strong and experienced opponent.”

After struggling slightly to start the second set, the home side regained their composure when it counted and scored seven of the last eight points to take the frame 25-22. The T-Birds had been down for most of the set before evening the count at 21-apiece on a Bisons error. Three more Manitoba miscues gave UBC a 24-21 edge, setting the stage for Andrew Bonner to wrap it up with one of his match-high 16 kills after a Josh Klassen kill had given his side a fighting chance.

The third frame proved a temporary aberration for the T-Birds, who dropped seven of the final nine points on their way to a 25-19 loss. Trailing by only a single point 18-17, the combination of a pair of Matt Balchin kills and a string of UBC errors allowed the Bisons to close the gap to 2-1 in sets with the opportunity to even it up in the fourth.

The T-Birds weren’t about to give Manitoba another chance, however, and came out even harder in the final frame than they had in the first. After trading points to start the set UBC proved dominant down the stretch, hammering home a number of quality shots on a series of unanswered runs to take a 25-14 victory.

“The fourth set was a great mental response for us,” noted Schick, whose squad improved to 3-3 on the regular season, while the Bisons fell to 1-2. “We picked up our game and didn’t let up. We’re striving for that consistency, that attitude and that mentality of knowing how good we can be and going out and proving it day in and day out.”

Bonner turned in a solid all-round performance adding 11 digs, seven blocks and three aces to his kill total while Eichbaum contributed 13 kills and hit for 38 per cent on the attack.

Balchin paced the Bisons with 14 kills while Klassed chipped in 10. Toon van Lankvelt recorded team-highs in digs (six) and blocks (six).

UBC hits the road to take on Saskatchewan Nov. 17 and 18 in Saskatoon. Manitoba returns home to host Regina.

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