Impressive T-Birds rally earns four set victory in Kelowna

VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds rallied after dropping the opening frame, taking three straight sets in a 4-1 (19-25, 25-13, 25-16, 25-21) victory over the host UBC Okanagan Heat Friday night in Kelowna.

The Heat started the night well, taking the first set on the power of a .350 team attacking percentage. But the rest of the match belonged to the ‘Birds who found their groove and snapped a two-match losing skid in the process.

“I think it was important for us to bounce back after Okanagan opened up playing pretty well, they just executed at a high level,” said UBC Head Coach Mike Hawkins. “It took us a set to feel them out a little bit. But kudos to our guys, we had really good conversations during timeouts and during the set break and we just knew if we stuck to our plan, things would start going our way and I think once we did that and settled in our guys took off from there.”

Take off they did with a whopping .550 team attack in the second set that saw UBC impose their will on Okanagan.

“Our serve receive solidified and that kind of allowed Mason Greves, our first year setter, to settle into the game,” added Hawkins. “If passing goes awry to start you don’t really gain any rhythm and I think that was the key, we just got rhythm really quickly in the second set and Mason did a good job of distributing the offence from there.”

An ace by Zarley Zalusky brings us to the technical timeout here in the fourth!

Set 4 || UBC 16 – UBCO 12@ubctbirds pic.twitter.com/0Jlxhnhh2R

— UBC Men’s Volleyball (@ubcmvb) December 4, 2021

Greves set a season-high mark with 41 assists Friday night while Michael Dowhaniuk led the team with 13 kills along with seven digs and a trio of service aces.

Coltyn Liu had 11 kills while Matt Neaves put up 10.

The Heat were led by Noah Carlson who managed 10 kills.

‘Birds are back on the winning column after taking down UBCO 3-1 tonight in Kelowna!

Exciting match for your T-Birds as they rack up 33 digs on the defensive end, followed up another 10 aces and 48 kills on the offensive side.

First serve tomorrow at 5pm! @ubctbirds pic.twitter.com/q6gcja9npy

— UBC Men’s Volleyball (@ubcmvb) December 4, 2021

Following up their dominant second set with an equally as impressive 25-16 win in the third, UBC fended off an early fourth set push by the Heat before pulling away by the technical timeout.

The ‘Birds head into Saturday’s rematch with eyes on a weekend sweep to head into the December break. First serve in Kelowna is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. PT.