By Danielle Doiron

WINNIPEG, MB – The UBC Thunderbirds came out on top in three of four close sets against the University of Manitoba Bisons on Saturday, November 8.

Bisons fans packed Investor's Group Athletic Centre to cheer on their defending CIS national champions.

"It was an important weekend," said Bisons head coach Ken Bentley. "We're playing an incredibly difficult first half schedule."

This was the teams' second match of the weekend. Manitoba won 3-2 on Friday, but couldn't keep up momentum and lost 3-1 Saturday night. The Bisons fell to 4-6 with the loss, while the Thunderbirds now stand at 6-4.

"It felt like we were playing catch-up the whole match," said Bentley. "We were always fighting to keep level with them."

Alissa Coulter led UBC with 17 kills and her teammate Rosie Schlagintweit had 14. Rachel Cockrell led the Bisons with 11 kills.

The Thunderbirds led for most of the opening set, but served short to miss their set point opportunity. Manitoba responded with a service ace, but UBC scored on the next rally to win the first set 25-22.

The Bisons fought back in the second to lead 16-13 at the technical timeout. Backed by the cheers of the high turnout crowd, Manitoba doubled their advantage to win the set 25-19.

Manitoba shut down another UBC set point opportunity in the third, but they couldn't hold off the Thunderbirds, who took the set 25-21.

The Bisons' Kalena Schulz served four straight aces in the final set, but the Thunderbirds took back the serve to enter the technical timeout up 16-13. They maintained their three-point lead to win the set 25-22 and the game 3-1.

"We gave up too many points in a row and couldn't close the gap," Bentley said.

He said the Bisons have another tough weekend ahead of them. They play on the road next Friday against Brandon at 6 p.m. CST, while UBC hosts Alberta on Friday at 6 p.m. PST.