November 10 - Following a loss to UBC the night before, The Bisons were still in search of their first win of the season Saturday night at the Investors Group Athletic Centre. UBC on the other hand, were looking to continue to climb atop the CIS Canada West table in the rematch between these two teams.

In a hard fought game, the Thunderbirds took the game in straight sets (25-22, 25-23, 25-18), sweeping the Bisons in the weekend series.

“We need to have more situations like this to get our confidence up,” said head coach Phil Hudson “We’ve had close games with some of the best teams in Canada, now that we know what to do against the harder teams we should get the confidence up with the easier teams in this conference.”

At the second technical of the first set, the visiting Thunderbirds were ahead of the Bisons 16-14. The set seemed to be a series of almosts for the Bisons, as they couldn’t quite push past UBC. Emphasized by the fact the Bisons couldn’t bring the game any closer than two points, The Thunderbirds took the opening set 25-22.

The Bisons kept the edge in the early part of the second set, but UBC was able to tie the game up at 7 by the first break in the set. Manitoba kept up with UBC with an ace midway through the set by setter, John Galloway, and a huge stuff-block from captain, Drew Venables later on. 25-23 was the score at the end of the second set in favor of the Thunderbirds. It was again, a series of almosts for the Herd.

UBC started the third set on a 7-3 run, but the Bisons got two points right back off UBC errors and were back in the game. UBC’s Andrew Bonner made sure his presence was felt throughout the match by making key blocks for the Birds, and being the most vocal on the court. UBC pulled away by the second timeout to a 16-9 lead. Unlike the previous two sets, the Manitoba wasn’t able to keep this set as close eventually losing it 18-25.

Bonner had an unbelievable 20 kills in the short match, along with 34 assists and 2 aces. Bisons Stefan Bouw was the bright spot for the Herd with 9 kills of his own.

After the match coach Hudson spoke again about the confidence factor. “We’ve already played two of the top three teams in Canada, and kept it close, it’s obviously frustrating not to win, but we have to remain positive.”

On November 16 and 17, the Bisons will make the trek to Regina for a two game, weekend series with the Rams. UBC will be visiting the same province on the same weekend, taking on the University of Saskatchewan.

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