VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds dropped their home opener to the visiting Mount Royal Cougars 3-0 (20-25, 23-25, 15-25) on Friday night at War Memorial Gym. Both teams seemed to be battling nerves in front of the boisterous crowd as they exchanged serving errors to start the game.

“There were areas of the game we did well,” said UBC head coach Doug Reimer after the game. “We showed we could serve and pass really well, but we didn’t finish offensively.”

The ‘Birds were able to mount a little bit of a run midway through the first set, pulling away 14-11 and forcing the Cougars to take a timeout. The timeout seemed to work wonders for the Cougars as they went on a mini run of their own trailing 16-15 heading into the 1st set technical timeout. It was a back and forth set but a nice, late run by the Cougars was a difference maker as they took the opening set 25 to 20. 

The second set started much better for the ‘Birds. They jumped out to a fast start, prompting an early Cougars timeout. The strong offensive play continued for the ‘Birds, as they were able to pull away from the Cougars and take a commanding 16-10 lead into the second timeout.

Out of that break, a string of UBC mishits brought the Cougars back in the game. The ‘Birds called their first timeout of the second set leading 20-18. More Thunderbird mishits and strong defensive play by the Cougars brought the visitors all the way back to take the second set 25-23.

With the ‘Birds up 7-6 in the third set, the rally of the match broke out. Both teams making great defensive plays, the rally was settled by Kayla Oxland put the rally to bed by smashing the ball off the far line.

More back and forth play on top of a Cougars run found the visitors on top of ‘Birds 16-13 heading into the third set technical timeout.

That was all the Cougars needed as they dominated play coming out of the break, led by Sherline Holness, who added a couple of kills. The Cougars went on to take the third set 25-15  and the match 3-0.

“Everyone has to do look to do better. We have to be ready to play through the entire set, not just up to 20 points.”

Both teams will be back in action tomorrow as the first serve is set for 5:00 p.m. PT.

[SOURCE: UBC]