UBC men’s volleyball carried their dominant form into Winnipeg this past Friday evening in a 3-set-to-1 victory over the University of Manitoba Bisons. Both clubs entered the match with aspirations of winning the Canada West title this year, coming into the season both ranked in the top five the coaches poll, with UBC at number 1 and Manitoba at 4. Despite the match beginning over an hour late in front of a sparsely populated, yet spirited, Manitoba crowd, the game delivered plenty of entertainment.
UBC has had a tremendous start to the season, coming in 2–0, winning both of their opening games in straight sets over the defending national champions, the Brandon University Bobcats. On the other hand, Manitoba has struggled to get the ball rolling starting 0-2, losing twice to the UBC Okanagan Heat, despite holding a 2–1 set lead against UBCO in their season opener. This match was by no means straightforward for either club, as Manitoba tested UBC early on, but once UBC settled in, they cruised to a confident victory in the fourth set.
While UBC looked like the better team at the start of the game, with a more well-rounded offence, the Birds barely squeaked out the first set 26-24. UBC boasted 16 kills in the set to the Bisons’ 8, however, UBC was marred by problems on serve all set, hitting numerous service errors. These struggles on serve were largely what allowed Manitoba to remain so competitive for the first two sets.
The second set proved different for the ‘Birds. Despite the team cleaning up many of the problems that troubled them in the first set — substantially increasing their hitting percentage — Manitoba captured an early lead that UBC never recovered from. UBC had its flashes throughout the set, particularly from their back line on defence, whose scrambling efforts managed to recover a few points for UBC. Despite the T-Birds’ best efforts, the Bisons looked like a well-oiled machine in the second set, executing their pass game to perfection and capturing the second set on an emphatic kill.
The third set, however, is where UBC really began to show their championship-calibre ceiling. If UBC’s success in the third could be tied to one player, it was outside hitter Dawson Pratt. Pratt played a remarkable third set on both offence and defence. He did a little bit of everything throughout, from getting huge stuff blocks, getting kills on cheeky out-of-system hits or blasting forceful spikes straight into the ground. After a service error from Pratt on the first set point, UBC regathered its composure, and with a kill from star outside hitter, Reeve Gingera, the ‘Birds captured the set in relatively straightforward fashion, 25-19.
The fourth set began similarly to the others, with Manitoba and UBC both being marred by service errors. As Manitoba looked to push the game to a fifth set, taking an early 7–6 lead, the ‘Birds started to convert on offence. A huge spike from Gingera regained some momentum before UBC really began to pull away, with a huge kill from outside hitter Gavin Moes at 11-10.
UBC went on a big run from here, bringing them to 18-12, at which point Manitoba was forced to call a timeout. The Bisons looked tired the whole fourth set — constantly trying to hang onto rallies — but their efforts eventually proved futile. Gingera, whose excellence had been on display all night, closed the match out on yet another kill on a fourth set score of 25-14.
The win marked a perfect 3-0 start to conference play for a T-Birds team that despite being impressive, is still looking to find its tip-top form, pushing to improve upon last season, where they lost in five sets to the University of Alberta Golden Bears in the Canada West semifinals. Meanwhile, Manitoba continues to struggle, falling to 0-3 in a less-than-ideal start to their season — an especially unfortunate record after being projected to be near the top of the conference.
UBC’s ability to pull away with such a straightforward win, despite committing 19 service errors, is an undeniably impressive feat. With a combination of resilience and depth, UBC looks poised for a championship-calibre season.
