T-Birds take down TRU to start 2022

VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds showed off their depth in a 3-1 victory over the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack (25-12, 25-18, 21-25, 25-17) to open their 2022 schedule on a positive note and improve to 4-3 on the Canada West season.

“It’s a really challenging situation right now,” said UBC head coach Doug Reimer as the T-Birds continue to make adjustments early in their season. “We have players out from injuries and COVID. This win did highlight our depth and I think there were two important pieces to this game – we started well, but I think more importantly we were solid in the fourth set after TRU raised their level of play in the third. While you don’t want to lose that third set, the end result makes us stronger moving forward. I give TRU credit for how they played the second half of the match, but we showed good composure. We had some serving runs and served with more purpose in the fourth set. Lots of players stepped in and contributed.”

Second-year standout Claire Cossarini continued her strong season of play into the new calendar year with eight kills and six blocks in the home court victory.

“It was really nice to get back out there after Christmas,” said Cossarini. “I know we had a pretty long break; everyone brought their ‘A’ game, so it was really fun. We did a good job in the first set focusing on our serves, once we got back to that we had a lot of success attacking. It’s always nice to start off on a win so hopefully we can do the same thing and close it out again tomorrow.”

Trinity Solecki led the ‘Birds with nine kills – adding 11 digs and two aces, Jayde Robertsen totalled eight kills with two aces, and Erika Vermette totalled seven kills with a career-high 17 digs. The T-Birds served up 13 aces through four sets with setter Gisella Goodger leading the way with an impressive career-high six aces.

  
TRU’s Erin Mutch had a team high 12 kills, while Brooklyn Olfert put up 10 kills and 15 digs in the hard-fought loss.

UBC jumped out to a 6-0 lead on a strong run of serving and maintained control of the first set – forcing at TRU timeout at 14-3 T-Birds. The WolfPack came up with a big block out of the timeout, but the ‘Birds carried a 16-4 lead into the technical timeout. A Kacey Jost backrow kill lifted the Thunderbirds to a set point at 24-11 and the ‘Birds closed out their first set of 2022 at 25-12.

The second set was more tightly contested as the two teams traded opportunities early and the ‘Birds held a 12-9 lead before Claire Cossarini smacked a kill for a four-point cushion. Seray Altay cranked a kill from the right side to bring the visitors back within two at 14-12, but the ‘Birds held a four-point edge at the break. Trinity Solecki came up with a kill and served up an ace at 20-13 UBC before Jayde Robertsen dropped an ace of her own. Hayley McNaught earned a kill off the block for the WolfPack at 23-16 UBC, but a TRU serve floated long to give the T-Birds their first set point at 24-17 and a Cossarini kill punctuated the set with a kill at 25-18.

Brooklyn Olfert put TRU up one at 3-2 in the third set and a UBC error gave the WolfPack a 5-2 edge as the visitors maintained an early 9-4 lead. The T-Birds fought back to within one at 11-10 with a Gisella Goodger block and Cossarini tied it up at 11-11 with a kill. Olfert reclaimed the two-point advantage with a kill from the left side, and TRU took a 21-16 lead on an ace. Solecki cut the deficit to three on a first hit kill at 23-20 TRU, but the WolfPack earned a set point on a UBC error and claimed their second set victory of the season with an Erin Mutch backrow kill at 25-21.

The WolfPack won three thrilling rallies early in the fourth set to take a 6-5 lead and continued a strong stretch of defence in a back-and-forth frame. The Thunderbirds led 16-13 at the technical timeout after a string of TRU errors and Robertsen lifted the ‘Birds to an 18-13 cushion before Solecki served an ace. The ‘Birds carried the momentum to their first match point at 24-16 that they won on a WolfPack service error at 25-17.

The two teams will meet in a rematch on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. (PST) at War Memorial Gym with the WolfPack still in search of their first conference victory.

Tickets to the game are free when reserved in advance, and you can stream the action live on Canada West TV.