CALGARY - The University of British Columbia Thunderbirds were hosted to a close match against the Mount Royal University Cougars to open their quarter-finals matchups. After fighting a tough battle, the Thunderbirds came out with a win 3-2 in a five set match.

Thunderbirds head coach Doug Reimer didn't take the win for granted. "Both teams had their ebbs and flows and [we were] pretty fortunate there. We hung tough in the fourth set… I think we got a lot of really good contributions from a lot of our players. It was a really good team win against, a tough team." 

Mount Royal's head coach Sandra Lamb showed great respect for their opponents following the match. "They executed defensively way better than we did tonight. They played like the experienced team that they are, and when it counted they came away with a win. So we gotta get back to work tomorrow." 

The set scores were (UBC-MRU): 20-25, 25-23, 25-19, 20-25, and 15-12. 

For Mount Royal, Dholi Thokbuom led with 19.5 points and 17 kills, followed by Cassidy Kitchen with 15 points and 13 kills. For British Columbia, Gabrielle Attieh led with 19 points and 17 kills, followed by Anna Price with 16.5 points and 16 kills. 

The match opened with strong kills from both sides, Thokbuom followed by Attieh. The two teams showed to be evenly matched as they traded the early points. They were head-to-head by the technical timeout. The Thunderbirds pulled ahead for just a moment with a series of kills from Attieh. The Cougars regrouped to land double kills from Kitchen followed by an ace from Laura Worsely for the Thunderbirds. Mount Royal held strong to win the set with a final kill from Kitchen. 

Mount Royal's Quinn Pelland began the second with a kill, but the Thunderbirds soon set the pace. Despite this, the Cougars were able to stay in the lead by just three points for half the set. The Thunderbirds caught up soon after the timeout with a series of points from Price. They were matched at the neck of the set until some strong communication paid off and the Thunderbirds pulled ahead to take it.

The Thunderbirds began the third with a strong stance, earning an early lead by a few points. They were capitalizing on strong defences to block several attempts from the Cougars. Price was maintaining the momentum and landing several of the team's points. Mount Royal pulled a strong rebound halfway through the set, but were unable to close the score gap by the time Brynn Pasin landed the final point for B.C.

It seemed the Thunderbirds were going to set the pace once more, but the Cougars soon regained their footing to take a narrow lead as the match hit nine points. They strengthened their lead with several kills from Tasha Holness and Chantel Park. Capitalizing on this momentum, they carried through the set, at one time having a seven point advantage. They took the set with a final block from Pelland. 

The final set was a tight battle as both sides were fighting hard for the advantage. For each point Mount Royal gained, the Thunderbirds found an opportunity as well. At the 12 point mark, Price landed a hard kill to pull ahead. They finished the match with two well-timed blocks by Attieh and Olivia Furlan. 

Reimer predicts it's going to be quite the match on Saturday night. "More of the same I think, MRU will come out really strong. There's a reason they are second in the league. They present lots of challenges for us, I think it's going to be even harder for us to close it tomorrow."

Lamb seemed confident that Saturday was going to be a whole new day. "It's do or die. We gotta come out, we gotta win. This is the reason we have home court... We gotta defend and we gotta make sure we make it tough on them."

The teams will face off for the second round of the quarter-finals on Saturday, February 22nd, at 6 P.M. MST on Kenyon court.