VANCOUVER – The fourth seed UBC Thunderbirds downed the visiting TRU Wolfpack in straight sets (25-25, 25-13, 25-14) on Friday night for a 1-0 advantage in their best-of-three Canada West quarter-final series.
Akash Grewal led the 'Birds with 14 kills and added two service aces, Lucy Borowski put up 12 kills and eight digs, while Trinity Solecki had six kills, six aces, and two blocks.
"Our execution in a lot of areas was really good," said UBC head coach Doug Reimer. "We didn't give up any runs, so I think that made it really tough. I thought we handled the ball well, we passed well and we took them a fair bit out of the play. To get one under our belt is big because there's a lot of experience on that team, so if they get on a roll it can be dangerous. I'm really happy that we were able to not only win one set decisively, but keep that pressure on consistently. Obviously more work to do tomorrow. Every set is a new set and every day is a new day, but we should feel very good about our performance today."
Brooklyn Olfert had a solid offensive performance for the Wolfpack with 8 kills. Keira Gent and Rida Erlalelitepe added six and four kills, respectively.
"It was first contact," explained TRU head coach Chad Grimm, when asked what the difference was on the night. "They served tough and we didn't handle that pressure very well at all and then we didn't put our hitters in a good spot when we were out of system so we could be aggressive in attack so that's a recipe for disaster."
Grewal ripped an ace for an early 6-1 UBC lead as
Emelie Silovs carried a strong serving run to a 10-2 advantage. The T-Birds continued to a 20-10 edge off a Solecki kill, and
Ella Ungemach scored from the left side for a 25-15 UBC set.
Olfert knotted up the evenly matched second set at 5-5, but the 'Birds took an 8-6 lead on an
Emma Doyon kill. The blue and gold pulled ahead for a 10-point cushion at 19-9 on a Grewal kill. The visitors struggled to string together points, and UBC won the set with a
Kylee Glanville finish, 25-13.
The 'Birds started the third set strong with a huge Solecki huge block followed by a sneaky setter dump by
Issy Robertshaw for an 8-3 lead. Libby Meldrum and Maria Dancheva combined for a block to bring the Wolfpack within three at 10-7, but UBC settled in and extended their lead to 16-9 with a Borowski kill. Grewal went cross court for a set point and UBC converted with a Solecki ace to take the third, 25-14.
The two teams play their second match in the best-of-three series Saturday at 6:00 p.m. PT, with Sunday's matchup scheduled for 5:00 p.m. PT, if necessary.
