DAVID LARKINS, Wesmen Athletics

The Winnipeg Wesmen's first touch let them down Sunday in a straight-sets loss to the defending national champions. 

Anna Price had nine kills and the UBC Thunderbirds women's volleyball team held the Wesmen to .083 hitting for the match in posting a 3-0 (25-23, 25-21, 25-15) Canada West conference victory at the Duckworth Centre.

Despite losing Saturday night, the Wesmen were very much in each set and gave UBC a stiff challenge. On Sunday, the T-Birds changed the narrative completely.

"They serve very aggressively, and we knew they would after last night," Wesmen head coach Phil Hudson said. "We just didn't receive the ball very well, but it's tough, they're serves are coming so aggressive all the time. And then you get a bad pass and you're a little bit tentative and you're scared to go after balls. We have to clean up our first contact, for sure, to have a chance. We just played out of system the whole time."

Price added 11 digs and hit .350 for the night. UBC (2-0) as a team hit .228 and out-dug the Wesmen 40-28. 

Gabrielle Attieh added eight kills and Cara Kovacs seven.

"I think our girls ... took our level up a bit from (Saturday)," UBC assistant coach Jodi Zbyszewski said. "We had a big focus on our serve-pass game and I thought we served very well. We served tough. Winnipeg's a good team, especially when they're in system, and if we could serve tough and keep them out of system, we'd have some success."

Taylor Boughton hit .444 — four kills on nine swings with no errors — for the Wesmen (0-2), who head to Trinity Western next weekend. Ashleigh Laube added six kills and five digs.

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