‘Birds Serve Up Series Sweep Over Cascades

On an historic night of serving from Matt Neaves, the UBC Thunderbirds earned a 3-0 (25-17, 25-21, 25-13) win over the University of the Fraser Valley Cascades to sweep their home opening series in convincing fashion.

“We knew they were going to come out hard even without Nimo Benne playing,” said UBC head coach Mike Hawkins after back-to-back home court victories to start the season. “We knew this was going to be a proud group that was really going to push us tonight. Credit to them, they came out with a lot of energy and fire on defense which forced us to play well. I don’t think it was perfect tonight, but at the end of the day we found a way to win three sets.”

Neaves cranked a career-high nine aces in the match, breaking a Thunderbirds record and placing himself in a tie for second all-time in a single match in Canada West history.

“With Neaves, it’s a credit to the work he’s put in,” said Hawkins after the record-breaking serving performance from the third-year T-Bird. “His serve has been years in the making, it’s not just a flash in the pan. For him, it’s good for him to have success right away and for us to have success from the service line is such a big part of who we are and what we’re going to do. It’s a good start but we have a long way to go.”

Neaves added nine kills, five digs, and three block assists, while Michael Dowhaniuk racked up a team-high 10 kills with two aces and two digs.

“We definitely saw our potential in these games,” said Dowhaniuk. “The challenge is going to be to hold ourselves to that high standard every single weekend. It was a little bit nerve wracking coming in because it’s been a year and a half since we’ve played on this court, so it was good to have the crowd support and probably the biggest crowd I’ve played in front of here, it definitely calmed the nerves so that was good.”

?? MVB | @ubcmvb‘s Michael Dowhaniuk after sweeping the @UFVCascades to open the @CanadaWest season pic.twitter.com/NWXV8zKhy8

— UBC Thunderbirds (@ubctbirds) November 14, 2021

Caleb Kastelein led the Cascades with nine kills, Jonas Van Huizen had three kills and 10 assists with two aces and three digs, and Ryan Adams had four kills in the loss as UFV is still in search of their first Canada West victory.

UBC earned a 9-5 lead in the first set on back-to-back points from Neaves with an ace and kill. Dowhaniuk extended the lead to 13-6 with a pair of aces and the ‘Birds took a 16-9 advantage into the technical timeout. Neaves smacked an ace for a 21-13 lead that forced a Cascades timeout, and the teams traded service errors to make it 24-15 ‘Birds. UFV extended the set until Zarley Zalusky closed it out with a kill at 25-17.

Eduardo Ferreira served up an ace early, but Dowhaniuk erased the run at 6-3 ‘Birds with a kill. Coltyn Liu gave the T-Birds a six-point cushion with one of his six kills at 13-7, before UFV cut it to four with a Kastelein block at 15-11 and fought back to within one on a string of UBC errors at 15-14. Ferreira completed the comeback with an ace at 15-15 and the Cascades won a marathon rally to even it up again at 16-16, but a net violation against UFV put the ‘Birds back up two and a serving error gave UBC a 20-17 lead. James Vincett cranked a kill at 22-18 but Neaves smoked a kill of his own for a 23-20 edge and the T-Birds won the set on a Neaves kill at 25-21.

Neaves came out firing from the service line early in the third set, as he helped lift UBC to an 11-3 lead with two straight aces and served up his fifth ace of the set at 14-3 before UFV finally stopped the run. The ‘Birds led 16-6 at the technical timeout and cruised to a 21-9 lead on a Mason Greves ace. Up 24-13, Zec Johnson fittingly served up an ace to close out the set and the match 25-13.

?? MVB | On the strength of some solid serving @ubcmvb completes the weekend sweep with another 3-0 (25-17, 25-21, 25-13) victory over @UFVCascades to improve to 2-0 on the young season! #GoBirdsGo pic.twitter.com/ECuVS1tyZw

— UBC Thunderbirds (@ubctbirds) November 14, 2021

“These are the games we’re ramping up for,” said Hawkins as the ‘Birds have a week away from conference play before travelling to take on the Trinity Western Spartans. “We know they’re going to be a tough team in our division, our conference, and the country. We always have good battles with them. Its good we have the week off to prep, get healthy, and get ready for the Spartans.”

The Thunderbirds will face the Spartans on November 26^th and 27^th on the road in Langley, while the Cascades also enjoy a week off before hosting the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack.