Heat split weekend series and draw 3-1 against Regina Cougars

The UBC Okanagan men’s volleyball team comeback from Friday night loss and take 3-1 victory from Cougars 

SET SCORES         1    2    3    4         TEAM RECORDS 
Regina         (1) 17   25   21   16        (1-1)  
UBC Okanagan   (3) 25   13   25   25        (1-1)  

KELOWNA, BC -The UBC Okanagan men’s volleyball team took their first win of the regular season in four sets against the University of Regina at the UBC Okanagan gymnasium.  

The Heat were able to rebound against the vising Cougars on Saturday night (Oct 17) by reducing their service errors from 19 in the loss on Friday to nine in Saturday night's victory.

For the first time in the five seasons the Heat and Cougars have been competing in Canada West the two teams played to a split weekend.

UBC Okanagan, now (1-1) on the season still hold the edge all time in the series with Regina with seven wins to three losses. The Cougars fall to (1-1) on the brand new season.

UBC Okanagan in the first set showed no ill effects from the Friday night loss, they overpowered the Regina squad in the first set and scored 16 of their points off the kill hitting a sublime .600 to power to a first set win. The big hits came from all over the court with fourth year middle Leo Schober going three for three for the Heat in powerful kills. This solid start led to five point scoring streak giving the Heat and a 12-5 advantage over the Cougars. The Cougars using power to strike back against the Heat were unable to gain enough momentum to advance the score giving the Heat a 25-17 win.

Regina,unfazed by the physicality of UBC Okanagan, took the second set leading for most, putting a pair of four point scoring streaks and a three point scoring streak on the board. These short attacks at the Heat were enough to allow the Cougars to cruise to a 25-13 set win as Regina's setter Michael Korgan’s ability to dump the ball kept UBC Okanagan off balance for much of the set.

The  pivotal third set had nine ties, but just two lead changes with both teams never separated by more then two points. Although  Regina had seven more kills in the third then the Heat it was five service errors and 12 attack errors on the part of the Cougars that allowed Leo Schober to close out the tightest set with an ace (25-21) and put UBC Okanagan up two sets to one.

Schober finished with just four kills but did so on just 10 swings, Jim Bell led the team  with 11 kills and seven digs, his teammate Lars Bornemann had 10 kills and seven digs. The other starting middle, Joshua Harvey  was even more effective on the kill then Leo's .600 mark. Harvery had nine kills on 13 swings (.615) kill ratio. The team’s ability to use their strength hitting has huge in their first set as 16 of their 25 points were off of kills. Rookie libero, Eli Risso, starting in his second straight match topped both squads with 12 digs.

Joshua Nickel led the match with 14 kills and five digs. Ten of the U of R players were able to make the scoresheet for kills. Andre Borgeaud  was second most for Regina with seven kills and Matthew Lueck had five kills, Michael Corrigan had 10 digs.

In the fourth the Heat’s team unity captured the final set win for the team. The Heat fired 23 attacks on the Cougars and made 12 kills. With their strong ability to finish hits the Heat also made multiple blocks that were instrumental to their win. The Cougars struggled to acquire points they were only able to push a four point scoring streak on the Heat. took the fourth with a 25-16 victory giving the Heat their first win of their 2015-16 campaign.

Next week the Heat will be on the road traveling to Saskatoon to play the U of S Huskies Oct 23 7 p.m (MDT ). start time. The Cougars  will travel to Calgary to play Mount Royal on Oct 23 6 p.m. (MDT)

~ Tia Sadler // Heat communications