The UBC Okanagan men’s volleyball team win their first on the road of the season after a balanced attack stymies the Regina Cougars. Rematch on Sat. at 5 p.m. PST.
Men’s Volleyball (Canada West conference match)
Friday, November 25th, 2016
Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport, Regina, SK
FINAL 1 2 3 4 SCORE UBC Okanagan (2-5) 25 29 25 25 3 Regina (0-7) 16 31 18 22 1
REGINA, Sask. — Three different players had double-digit kills for UBC Okanagan as the Heat took a four-set road victory over the Regina Cougars on Friday night at the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport.
Devon Cote, Joshua Harvey, and Lars Bornemann led the attack for UBC Okanagan, which improves its Canada West record to 2-5 with the win. Cote had a match-leading 16 kills, while Harvey had 14 while leading all players with a .455 hitting percentage and Bornemann chipped in with 13 kills.
Harvey was also strong at the net with eight blocks, while Bornemann added nine digs to fall just short of compiling the match’s lone double-double. Third-year setter Jon Russo piled up 41 assists, while libero Eli Risso had 10 digs and Kyle Hinchey had six kills and five blocks to go along with nine digs.
Matthew Aubrey led Regina in both kills (11) and digs (8) and also added four blocks, one short of Conal McAinsh’s team-leading total of five. Michael Corrigan added 33 assists and seven digs for the Cougars, who fall to 0-7 on the season.
The Heat could do little wrong in the first set, hitting .476 as a team while chalking up a 25-16 win. The Cougars replied by outlasting UBC Okanagan for a 31-29 win in the second, surviving five set points for the Heat before a big solo block by Cody Caldwell helped the Cougars convert on their second set point. But UBC Okanagan jumped right back into the lead in the third, with Russo running another efficient offence that saw the Heat hit .467 while taking the set by a 25-18 margin.
In the fourth set, UBC Okanagan broke a 12-12 deadlock with three straight points and led the rest of the way. The Cougars got back to within one point on five separate occasions – the latest of which came at 22-21 – but weren’t able to get any closer as the Heat held on for a 25-22 win.
UBC Okanagan and Regina will meet again on Saturday night (5 p.m. PST) at the CKHS.
~ Braden Konschuh, Regina Cougars