‘Birds Secure Gutsy Road Victory Friday in Calgary

VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds (15-4) kicked off the month of February with a gutsy road victory Friday in Calgary (11-8). Elise Petit and Erika Vermette each supplied the ‘Birds with 16 kills while Kacey Jost impressed with 18 digs in a 3-1 (25-19, 25-21, 30-32, 25-21) victory. Sophie Reed and Carolyn Berze each had 13 kills in response for Calgary. As a collective, UBC hit for a .250 percentage and forced the Dinos into 28 errors. It snapped a modest two-game losing streak for UBC and ensured that they’ll head into Saturday alone in second place in the Canada West standings.
 
Doug Reimer‘s club kicked off the match with a 25-19 victory in Set 1. The ‘Birds managed 14 kills and hit for a success rate of .306 percent. Four of the 14 kills in the opening set came courtesy of Erika Vermette, including the set-clinching point off a Kayla Oxland setup. UBC jumped out to a 3-0 lead and never trailed, despite being tied at one point 14-14. UBC regained full momentum with a 5-0 run which turned a 17-16 score into 22-16. The Dinos also had 14 first-set kills, but lost eight points due to errors. Their first set hitting percentage was .130.
 
UBC extended their lead with a 25-21 victory in Set 2. 17 of UBC’s 25 points came as a result of kills and a hitting percentage of .244 percent. Captain Brynn Pasin led UBC with five second-set kills while Elise Petit chimed in with four of her own. Early in Set 2, Calgary led 6-3, but the visitors clawed their way back to a 9-7 lead. Neither team managed more than a run of four straight points in a back-and-forth set, but when UBC leading 23-21 late, Elise Petit increased the ‘Birds lead by three with a kill. One point later, Calgary’s Carolyn Berze was credited with an attacking error which resulted in UBC securing the second set victory.

 
The Dinos responded with a hard-fought 32-30 victory in the third set to keep their hopes alive. The third set featured eight separate lead changes with neither team able to go beyond four points of the other. Down the stretch of Set 3, UBC had five different match point chances, but were unable to convert. With the score 30-29 in favour of UBC, Calgary bounced back to steal the set thanks to kills from Carolyn Berze and Sheridan Coninx and then a set-clinching ball handling error by Kayla Oxland.
 
Early in the fourth set, the Dinos stormed out to an 8-3 lead and had the home crowd clamouring for a tie-breaking fifth set. But UBC remained resilient and chipped away at the deficit with four unanswered points of their own. Akash Grewal and Erika Vermette supplied kills, and were aided by a pair of Calgary errors that moved UBC back within striking distance. Then with the score 15-12 for Calgary, UBC rattled off a string of five straight points off Erika Vermette serves to arrive at a lead that they ultimately would not relinquish. With the score 24-18 for UBC, Calgary would mount one final push and inched their way back to a 24-21 score – But Elise Petit delivered the game’s final kill off Kayla Oxland’s 44^th assist, cementing the 15^th victory of the season for UBC and sole possession of second place in the Canada West standings.
 
The two teams meet again tomorrow at 4:00 pm PT from Calgary.