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Saturday Sports Roundup: Heat volleyball impresses, Warriors silenced in Langley

Heat men win in four over Cougars

<who> Photo credit: GreyStoke Photography </who>

Three different players had double-digit kills for UBC Okanagan as the Heat took a four-set road victory over the Regina Cougars Friday night.

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 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.

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, 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 and digs (11 and 8 respectively) 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.

No. 5-ranked Heat women cruise to three-set win over Cougars

<who> Photo credit: GreyStoke Photography </who>

The No. 5-ranked UBC Okanagan Heat rolled to a three-set victory over the Regina Cougars on Friday night.

The Heat held Regina to negative hitting percentages in both of the first two sets, which they won by convincing scores of 25-12 and 25-10.

Coming into the match there was a three-way tie for the Canada West career conference record in service aces between Emily Oxland, Megan Festival and Shanlee McLennan, who graduated from the Brandon Bobcats last year, all with 138. Oxland began the match serving for the Heat and it was her fifth serve that broke the record with her 139th career service ace, it also put UBCO up 5-0.

Oxland finished the match with two aces to set the record at 140, Oxland also owns the Canada West record for most aces in a season (46) set in 2012-13. Festival, now chasing Oxland for the record is just one behind - Festival closed out the match with her only ace on the night.

The third set had the same ending – a UBC Okanagan win – but a very different story leading up to it. Leah Sywanyk had two kills and two aces to help the Cougars score seven of the first eight points, forcing a Heat timeout. UBCO got to within two at 10-8, but the Cougars went on a 7-3 run to take a six-point lead after the technical timeout.

But the Heat pulled off an impressive comeback to clinch the match. They faced a Regina set point at 24-23, but Megan Festival scored back-to-back kills to give the visitors their first lead of the set and the fifth-year outside hitter then stepped back to the baseline and delivered an ace to give UBC Okanagan the win. In the end, UBCO claimed 10 of the final 13 points of the set on its way to a 26-24 victory.

Kaitlynn Given had nine kills to lead all players and also had a match-high .615 hitting percentage for UBCO, which improves to 6-1 with the victory. Michelle Jakszuk added eight kills and four aces for the Heat, while Festival finished with six kills and a team-high nine digs.

Leah Sywanyk didn’t start for the Cougars, but was again effective off the bench and had a team-leading five kills while hitting .364 for the match. Taylor Ungar had a match-high 11 digs for the Cougars, while Ashlee Sandiford was just behind with 10 digs.

Warriors offence silenced in Langley

<who> Photo credit: KelownaNow </who>

The West Kelowna Warriors found themselves on the wrong end of a 4-2 score after facing off against the Langley Rivermen last night.

The Warriors and Rivermen played to a scoreless first period that saw the West Kelowna penalty kill shut down scoring during twice over the period. Warrior netminder Shane Farkas turned aside 15 shots in the opening frame while Langley goaltender Bradley Cooper made 10 saves in his BCHL debut.

The Rivermen opened the scoring in the second period as Eric Butte found a loose puck at the top of the crease and buried it past Farkas’ glove side at the 6:20 mark.

Langley jumped ahead by a pair at the 10:29 mark of the middle stanza on a redirection from Nicholas Ponak at the front of the goal on a Cooper Leitch shot.

But West Kelowna got themselves back to within one later in the frame, when Braiden Epp centered a shot for Jared Marino, who banged the puck in on the glove side for his fourth goal of the season, at the 16:49 mark of the period.

The Rivermen got their eventual game winning goal at the 11:37 mark of the third period, as John Schuldt fired in a slap shot on the power play through traffic to give Langley a 3-1 lead.

The Warriors got the game within one at the 18:39 mark as they pulled the goaltender for the extra attacker. Quin Foreman batted in a pinballing puck on the blocker side of Cooper for his 16th goal of the season and a 3-2 lead for the Rivermen.

Just 30 seconds later, Eric Butte added his second goal of the game, with the Warriors were trapped in their own zone, and he converted on the empty net to give the Rivermen a 4-2 and the victory.

AP goaltender Bradley Cooper picked up his first BCHL victory for the Rivermen after making 33 saves on 35 shots while Shane Farkas stopped 35 of 38 shots in the losing cause.

Second straight win for Heat women’s basketball

<who> Photo credit: GreyStoke Photography </who>

The University of British Columbia Okanagan Heat have drawn first blood in their Canada West women’s basketball weekend series with the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack. On Friday night the Heat took down the Pack 60-49.

It was a battle of the two geographical rivals and a pair of teams who entered the game with identical 1-5 records. UBCO was up 29-27 at the half. Emily Kanester lead the team with 17 points and eight rebounds. TRU’s main offensive threat was Emma Piggin with 12 points. Kelowna’s Emily Vilac had a ‘double double’ with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

So far this season the Heat have struggled in the fourth quarter, getting outscored in the final frame 99-57 over their first five games.

Friday in Kamloops the Heat not only maintained the lead in the final frame but extended it to finish the game, essentially tension free, as the 'Pack found no success against the Heat defense, scoring just 22 points in the second half.

Three UBCO players scored in double digits: Kanester and her 17 points was supported by fellow fifth year Chloe Kennedy and her 10 points and six rebounds, Claire Elliott had 11 points, and her four steals giver her 22 on the season, good for fifth in the conference.

Second year post Jordan Korol, controlled the defensive glass with 10 rebounds, nine on the defensive end.

Struggling to score from the field, the Heat used the three point shot and the free throw as the way to find success on the offensive end. Shooting just 29% from the field, UBCO was perfect 12-12 from the free throw line and made over a third of their threes (8-23, 34.8%). Kanester was 6-6 from the charity stripe and 3-6 from long distance.

Heat men drop heartbreaker in Kamloops

<who> Photo credit: GreyStoke Photography </who>

Aldrich Berrios finished the night with 27 points, but it wasn't enough as the Thompson Rivers WolfPack were able to erase a 12-point deficit in the fourth quarter and comeback against the visiting UBC Okanagan men's basketball team.

The Heat were edged by the Pack 78-75 on Friday night on the Warner Rentals court at the Tournament Capital Centre.

Berrios started strong, including 18 points in the first half. His three at the 7:49 mark of the fourth was the first time either team enjoyed a double-digit lead, putting UBCO up 69-59. The teams traded hoops and then a jumper by Mitch Goodwin two minutes later had the Heat once again up 12 with six minutes to play. That is when the wheels came off for the visitors as the WolfPack finished the game on a 17-2 run to steal their second win of the season.

The 'Pack improve to (2-5) while the Heat drop to (1-6) after Friday night.

Berrios finished with a stat line of 27 points and nine rebounds, the 6'1" guard was 4-9 from the three point line and is 20-50, 40% from three on the year. His 20 threes are second most in the conference and the 20.0 points per game he is averaging is fourth in Canada West.

Two Kelowna Owls, Buzz Truss and Mitch Goodwin, both scored in double digits for the Heat as well in Kamloops. Truss with 16 points and Goodwin with 14, Goodwin also hauled in eight boards.

TRU had two players score over 20 in the win. Derek Rhodes finished with 25 points and Volodymyr Iegorov just missed a double-double with 20 points and nine rebounds. The 6'7" fifth year from the Ukraine also passed the ball finishing with six assists.

After the WolfPack jumped out to a 21-17 lead in the first quarter it was Berrios scoring 14 of his team's 21 points in the second quarter to send the Heat into the break with a slim 38-36 lead at the half.

The third quarter ended with the Heat extending their lead by a basket (61-57) and then blitzing the 'Pack early in the fourth before missing their final seven field goals, the only points scored in the final six minutes by the Heat were from the free throw line. Derek Rhodes and Mike Roualt took advantage and closed out the game for the TRU. Rhodes scored nine and Roualt five in the final five minutes to burn the Heat.



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