T-Birds dial up defence in four-set win over Cascades

ABBOTSFORD – A strong defensive performance set the foundation for the UBC Thunderbirds on Friday evening in Abbotsford, as they defeated the University of the Fraser Valley Cascades in four sets.

The Thunderbirds racked up 75 digs in the match, with four players in double digits individually, and they also excelled at the net, with an 18-12 edge in blocks en route to a 25-19, 22-25, 25-15, 25-13 win.

The result allowed the UBC (6-5) to move ahead of the Cascades (5-6) and take sole possession of third place in the West Division. The two teams renew hostilities on Saturday at the UFV Athletic Centre (6 p.m., CanadaWest.tv presented by Co-op).

“There were times they made spectacular plays, for sure, where we just have to say, ‘Good job, UBC,'” UFV head coach Janelle Rozema analyzed afterward. “But there were definitely times we could have controlled our contacts better.

“Our post-game talk was about, ‘This is what Canada West volleyball is like.’ The little things really matter, and we haven’t had a team expose us in those ways in a while. It’s another lesson of how good the volleyball is at this level.”

The Thunderbirds wasted little time showing their quality – they scored the first nine points of the match, eight of which came with Erika Vermette at the service line, and Vermette notched two aces during that stretch. The Cascades, facing a daunting deficit, managed to string together five points midway through the set, capped by a block and a kill back-to-back from Alicja Hardy-Francis, but it was too little, too late, as UBC cruised to the 25-19 win.

The Cascades made a dramatic comeback in the second. Trailing 20-11, they scored 14 of the next 16 points to stun the T-Birds and take the set 25-22. Amanda Matsui, Hardy-Francis, and Sadie Wilson had service runs, and Mo Likness contributed a pair of resounding kills down the stretch as UFV improbably squared the match.

“They made volleyball harder for UBC to play (in the second set),” Rozema said. “In all other sets of the match UBC was really comfortable, but that was the one set we made them uncomfortable. They’re a more physical team than we are, but we blocked better, we defended better, and our hitters made better decisions and fewer errors.”

The Cascades were unable to transfer any of that momentum – UBC’s Cara Kovacs dominated the third set, hammering down five kills, and Kayla Oxland had a four-point service run mid-set that broke it open for the visitors.

It was more of the same in the fourth – the two teams were level at 9-9, but UBC reeled off eight of the next nine points with Oxland once again excelling at the service line, and they cruised from there.

Oxland had an outstanding evening, posting 38 assists, a team-best 19 digs, five kills, and two aces. Kovacs (13 kills) and Brynn Pasin (11 kills) led the attack, and in the digs department, Jess Goodridge (14 digs), Pasin (10) and Claire Cossarini (10) joined Oxland in double digits.

Likness led the Cascades with eight kills, Sadie Wilson notched seven kills, Amanda Matsui had six kills, 12 digs and two aces, and libero Emily Matsui had a team-best 18 digs.