Thunderbirds beat Griffins to enter the break undefeated

It was a cool, confident performance from the UBC Thunderbirds on Saturday night, as they took down the MacEwan Griffins in straight sets (25-15, 25-16, 25-15) to stand at a perfect 10-0 at the halfway point of the season.

The T-Birds were able to play from the front throughout most of the night, and were very efficient offensively, racking up 43 kills on a .375 hitting percentage.

“I thought the tempo of our sets, especially to our outside hitters, were solid,” said Thunderbirds head coach Doug Reimer. “We started to mix in some off-speed attacks more purposefully, which was good to see. It was something we’d been working on.”

Akash Grewal led the way for UBC with a season-high 13 kills on a sterling .524 hitting percentage. Olivia Furlan played as an outside hitter once again and put up nine kills, four digs, two blocks and three aces, while Trinity Solecki added 10 kills, four digs, three blocks and two aces. Rookie libero Daphne Demiryol had a big night with a career-best 10 digs.

Arden Butler recorded nine kills and six digs for the Griffins. Renee Jodoin put up 16 assists and two kills in her second start of the season.

The T-Birds started the first set down 3-1, before Solecki notched a kill and block on successive plays to tie it up. The two teams went back and forth throughout the first half of the set, before the T-Birds suddenly created separation and pulled away.

Tied at 10 points apiece, kills from Solecki and Furlan put UBC into the lead. That began what turned into a 15-5 run to close the set, with six different T-Birds getting kills on the board during that stretch. Kylee Glanville landed an ace to make it 23-14 for the home team, before Ella Ungemach ended the set a couple points later with a kill off the bench.
 

The Thunderbirds had a bit of a slow start again in the second, before a kill and an ace from Emelie Silovs put them in front 8-5. Jocelyn Lenarcic forced a MacEwan timeout with a kill that made it 11-6, part of a 7-1 run for the T-Birds that put them in control.

The Griffins did fight back and cut the deficit to just three, but UBC answered right back with another run of their own. A kill from Silovs made it 18-11, and the blue and gold cruised from there. Glanville ended the set with an ace, one of 13 on the night for the Thunderbirds.

With the chance to finish off the match, the ‘Birds came out flying in the third, going up 10-3 off a kill from Furlan. Another ace from Silovs, one of a career-high four for her on the night, made it 15-6 and UBC never looked back from there. Furlan earned the final point of the night at 25-15 with a kill.
 

?? WVB | @ubcwvb1 downed the MacEwan Griffins in straight sets 3-0 to sweep the weekend series while improving to 10-0 on the @CanadaWest campaign.

5th-year outside hitter Trinity Solecki collected 10 kills, 2 aces & 4 digs & spoke to why the T-Birds are playing so well!

?? : pic.twitter.com/niHApNC1nl

— UBC Thunderbirds (@ubctbirds) December 1, 2024

The victory means the Thunderbirds enter the winter break undefeated, the first time they’ve done so since the 2013-14 season. The tests will only get tougher for the T-Birds once the calendar flips to 2025, as they will close the final four weeks of the regular season by facing the teams currently ranked second, third, fourth and fifth in the Canada West standings.  

“There’s a lot of good volleyball teams we’re going to play between now and the start of the playoffs,” added Reimer. “T-Bird fans should come to War Memorial Gym in the second half of the year to see teams like Manitoba, TRU, Fraser Valley…we have a lot of work to do, and hopefully we’re going to be getting more people back.”

The Thunderbirds are next in action on the road against UBC Okanagan on January 10th and 11th. Their next home series is against Manitoba, the hosts of this year’s national championship tournament, on January 24th and 25th.