Box Score VANCOUVER – After sitting out a week with injury and watching his team drop both games while he was gone, Ben Chow returned to the lineup in impressive fashion for the UBC Thunderbirds on Friday, guiding them to a 3-1 win (21-25, 25-15, 25-18, 25-22) over the Brandon Bobcats with a match-high 17 kills.
 
A slow start, particularly in the serve receive game, hampered UBC in the first set, but the T-Birds clearly looked like the superior team from that point on, beating Brandon in all facets of the game. They outhit the Bobcats .260 to .216, outblocked them 10-7, and had six aces to eight service errors, while Brandon struggled at the line, with three aces and 13 errors.

Nikic had a great all-around performance, with four of UBC's six aces and 43 assists, as well as five kills on six attempts, including one on match point. He also mixed things up nicely on offence, helping Chow and his partner on the outside, Quentin Schmidt, rack up 29 combined kills while also getting Alex Russell involved in the middle. The big man had 11 kills on .500 hitting.
 
Dan Boutwell led the Bobcats with 15 kills and Sam Tuivai added 12. Jeremy Davies had nine kills and a team-high 11 digs.
 
The win puts UBC into a tie for third in the Canada West standings at 10-5, while Brandon falls below .500 at 7-8, in a three-way tie for sixth. That puts them in a very tricky spot, since only seven teams get a ticket to the postseason, putting extra pressure on the Bobcats to turn things around and earn a split when these teams wrap up the series on Saturday at 7 p.m.