VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds (10-6) earned a weekend sweep over the UBC Okanagan Heat (4-12) with a convincing 3-0 (25-23, 25-13, 25-15) victory to close out their homestand inside War Memorial Gym.
Rookie Reeve Gingera had another impressive showing for the blue and gold – putting up 11 kills with an ace, Michael Dowhaniuk and Conaire Taub each tallied nine kills and six digs, while Mason Greves racked up five aces with 33 assists and seven digs in the straight-sets win.
“I think we managed the ball better tonight,” said UBC head coach Mike Hawkins after the straight-sets win. “We still had more attack errors than I would have liked to see, but I thought our decision-making was better. The errors that we made were intelligent, but aggressive errors and those are fine. We can live with those. I though Reeve did a really good job tonight. He’s done a good job the last couple weekends, with what I’d call showtime kills but his efficiency hasn’t always looked so hot because of the errors in the decision-making process. I thought he was much better tonight…hitting over .300 is great – especially the type of balls he was getting set, I thought he managed them really well.”
Lucas Woelders led the Heat with seven kills, Thys Weststrate had five kills, and Teo Ardanaz added five total blocks and two kills on Saturday evening.
A tightly contested first set saw the visitors break a 19-19 tie with a big block, but the ‘Birds knotted it up again at 21-21 with a Dowhaniuk kill. Knotted up at 23 points apiece, a Heat attack sailed wide to give the ‘Birds their first set point, and they converted on the next point as UBCO was called for a back row attack violation.
The T-Birds picked up steam the second set, as they jumped out to a 10-2 cushion and led 18-8 after a Conaire Taub tip. UBC continued to click and carried their lead to a 25-13 set win. The ‘Birds held another 10-2 lead to start the third, and Woelders kept the Heat within eight at 17-9 on a kill. The visitors couldn’t cut into the deficit, and UBC cruised to a 25-15 victory to cap off the weekend series.
Next up for the Thunderbirds is a road trip to Calgary for a meeting with the Canada West’s second-seeded Mount Royal Cougars (13-3), while the Heat will host the third-place Trinity Western Spartans (11-5).
“We just need to continue refining,” said Hawkins, with four weekends remaining in UBC’s regular season schedule. “At this point in the year we’re not really looking to reinvent the wheel, we’re just looking to refine our style of play, our systems, and our decision-making processes and just keep getting better.”