Aaron Martin/UBC Thunderbirds

VANCOUVER — The UBC Thunderbirds men's volleyball team (6-0) kept up their unbeaten record in conference play on Friday night, taking a second straight 3-0 sweep over the Thompson Rivers WolfPack (2-4) in front of their home crowd at War Memorial Gym.

Irvan Brar again proved himself a premier trigger man in the Canada West, as the fifth-year senior's 12 kills and six services were game highs. However, with former Calgary Dino Keith West posting a season-best eight kills, and six 'Birds dropping at least three, UBC head coach Kerry MacDonald was quick to point out the importance of his team's depth.

"I don't know if there was really one person," said the coach when asked to name an individual standout. "I'm guessing Irvan was one of our stats leaders, as he often is, but I don't know, I thought it was fairly well-balanced. All of our guys, especially in the first and second set, we served really well, and it was all six guys serving aggressively. All six guys have the potential to earn points for us, and that's what we need to win at this level."

TRU got six kills from Tim Dobbert, and four each from Randy Grundmann, Joshua Mullaney, Anton Napolitano, and Sam Taylor Parks.

The 'Birds were dynamic from the back line, particularly in those first two sets. Taking both by a 25-17 margin, UBC combined for nine aces in the two frames, including six total, four of which came from Brar, in the second stanza alone. The Thunderbirds were also hyper-efficient on the attack in those sets, earning points on 40.4 per cent of their swings, picking up 25 kils on 47 attempts, with just six errors.

Still, MacDonald's squad also did well on the defensive, holding WolfPack stars Dobbert and Grundmann in check for much of the contest.

However, UBC appeared to be in trouble during the third set, as the WolfPack seemed to find another gear. Aggressive, with excellent ball movement and some powerful kills from Grundmann and Dobbert, matching Brar and the UBC offence step-for-step, the two sides found themselves in lockstep at 23-23.

MacDonald also noted the T-Birds' self-inflicted wounds accounting for the shift in the set script.

"I mean, it was fairly simple – they were able to sideout, and we were making a lot of service errors, we made eight service errors in that set," said the UBC coach. "When [the WolfPack} were in, they passed a lot better, and that made the match a lot closer."

In the end, the 'Birds did overcome, as a fantastic rally was capped off by a Joel Regehr kill down the middle to set up a UBC match point before the senior middle dropped the clincher on the next point, smashing a bullet of the hands of the WolfPack to end it.

The 'Birds will now have a week to rest up before heading out to Edmonton's Saville Community Sports Centre next week, as they are set to face the Alberta Golden Bears. Both teams unbeaten in Canada West play, the T-Birds and Bears will first square on off Friday, November 17 before the rematch on Saturday, November 18.

The WolfPack will head east next weekend for the Friday-Saturday doubleheader at Winnipeg.

PHOTO: Wilson Wong/UBC Thunderbirds