Battle with the Pack

Hello Thunderbird fans, friends and family

The team just finished a weekend series of exhibition matches with the TRU Wolfpack. This was our first taste of CIS action.

Our first match on Friday night was a particularly special one as it was the return of Ben Chow to Fleetwood Park secondary. Although this gym was not our "home gym" with Ben on our side we definitely had the crowds support. After somewhat of a back and forth affair we were able to come out on top in 5 sets. The game did have its ups and downs and was filled with line up changes. Offensively, we had a well balanced effort which continues to be one of the recurring themes with our group.Wing spikers Ben Chow and Milo Warren finished the match with a dozen kills while corrector Demijan Savija was close behind with 11 rally ending smashes. Joe Cordonier and Cary Brett were also extremely active spikers. Cary finished with 6 kills and joco finished had 7. Current UBC libero Ian Perry took his skills to the front row and ran the offense for the t-birds in the 4th and 5th sets. Perry maintained composure and looked comfortable as a setter and led the thunderbirds to their most convincing set wins. Many things can be taken from this match, both positive and negatives but our group knows we will need to find more consistency in order to stay successful.

On Saturday we returned to War Memorial gym for the second match of the series. With both teams looking to improve on their previous nights performance it was the Pack that showed it as they took the match 3-0. The energy coming from our side was low and TRU was able to execute offensively. Nathan shuck started on the rightside instead of Demijan Savija and Ian Perry took over the setting role in the 3rd set. It seemed as though we could never get the ball rolling and take control of the match. Our next meeting with TRU will not be til the end of our regular season when we travel to Kamloops for our final season series.

As a team we will need to continue to move forward and continuously improve throughout the next couple weeks. Our home opener is in two weeks time when we play the TWU spartans on october 29th and 30th.

Thanks for reading
-Team Volleyhype