Jeff Sargeant/UBC Thunderbirds
VANCOUVER - The UBC Thunderbirds (3-1) earned their first weekend sweep of the season with their first straight sets win in an impressive performance over the Calgary Dinos (4-2) Saturday night at War Memorial Gym.
The 'Birds powered their way to a 25-19 first set win but Calgary stormed back taking a 13-9 lead at one point in the second only to have UBC go on a 16-8 run for the 25-21 win.
The third set saw an even more dramatic comeback by the 'Birds who found themselves down 16-10 at the timeout but they rallied back for the 25-23 win handing Calgary their first straight sets loss of the season.
"In that third set our ability to hang in there and battle back was big along with the contributions from mixing the lineup a little bit with Laura Worsley and Victoria Behie," said UBC head coach Doug Reimer. "There were two times where we could have let it completely slip away and we hung in and that's big. We really cleaned up our serving in that third set when we needed to put more pressure on them."
Rookie left side Kiera Van Ryk led all players with 15 kills while chipping in defensively with four digs and three block assists.
Ciara Hanly added 10 kills and five block assists while fourth year Libero Samantha Patko had an impressive 17 digs.
Calgary's Hannah Tanasichuk led the visitors with eight kills and six digs while Laura McManes and Jaylynn Moffatt each had six kills for the Dinos.
The T-Birds' schedule gives them rare back-to-back weekends at home with Thompson Rivers heading to War Memorial for a doubleheader Thursday and Friday November 9 and 10.
"We've got a very short turnaround this week so I was happy for sure to get two wins out of Calgary," added Reimer. "But most importantly, the preparation that the players did today in particular, there are a lot of positive signs moving forward."
First serve against the WolfPack Thursday night is set for 6 p.m. PT.
The Dinos are back on the road next weekend, with a Friday-Saturday doubleheader at Winnipeg.
PHOTO: Wilson Wong/UBC Thunderbirds