T-Birds take down top-seeded Spartans in straight sets

VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds (7-4) handed the conference-leading Trinity Western Spartans (8-1) their first loss of the season with a decisive 3-0 (25-19, 25-16, 25-16) victory at War Memorial Gym in front of an electric alumni night crowd, including members from the 1976 national championship team.
 
Matt Neaves had an efficient outing with 14 kills and an impressive .684 hitting percentage with four aces and two blocks, Michael Dowhaniuk put up seven kills with four assists, four digs and two aces, while Jesse Umoren added six kills on nine total attacks in the win. Brodie Hofer led the Spartans with 10 kills and Henry Rempel had nine kills on the night.

 
“We’ve been preaching to our guys to take the information from our game plan, translate it for whatever their role is, and executing,” said UBC head coach Mike Hawkins after the ‘Birds got back into the win column in their final home game of 2022. “I think on previous weekends we’ve been slow out of the gate in doing that. There are definitely still a few areas we can clean up, but we were attacking efficiently, did a pretty good job from the baseline, and the result spoke for itself. As an aggressive serving team, if you can continue to sustain pressure it’s very difficult to manage over the course of a match. We still ended up having 15 serving errors, which might seem like a lot, but with nine service aces…that’s the pressure we’re looking for. All in all, it was a pretty good performance.”
 
The T-Birds jumped out to a 15-8 lead in the first and maintained their advantage with a Neaves kill at 17-11. With the Spartans pressing, Conaire Taub dropped an ace for a 19-13 lead before Umoren got the fans buzzing with a big solo block at 22-16. UBC continued to click and comfortably took the first set, 25-19, on another Neaves kill.
 

MVB | @ubcmvb go up 2 sets to none over undefeated @SpartanMVB here at War Memorial Gym. #GoBirdsGo

: pic.twitter.com/29jIsDMKP6

— UBC Thunderbirds (@ubctbirds) November 26, 2022

Dowhaniuk put the ‘Birds up 11-7 in the second set before Neaves crushed a kill that forced a TWU timeout at 14-9 UBC. Umoren made it a nine-point cushion with a kill and Dowhaniuk came up with a block to give the T-Birds a set point at 24-14 – before ending it with a kill at 25-16.

 
The T-Birds took a 19-13 lead in the third on a Neaves kill and earned a set point after back-to-back attacks from Umoren. The first-year middle wasn’t done yet, as Umoren unloaded on the match winner at 25-16.
 
The Canada West rivals will square off on Saturday in Langley at 6:45 p.m. (PT) to close out the home-and-home series in UBC’s final match ahead of their winter break.
 
“It’s like they say in the playoffs – you hold home court and then you have to go to their barn,” said Hawkins. “We know we’re going to get a really strong push from them, and we know they’ll be very well supported at the Langley Events Centre. We just have to focus on coming out and doing our job. It’s not going to require anything more than that. It’s going to be about interpreting the game plan, translating it for your role, and executing.”