‘Birds bring home U SPORTS bronze

KINGSTON, Ont. – The UBC Thunderbirds are U SPORTS bronze medalists in after defeating the host Queen’s Gaels 3-1 (29-27, 26-24, 25-27, 25-17) at the U SPORTS Championship at the Athletics and Recreation Centre (ARC). The T-Birds follow their Canada West bronze medal win with the same achievement on the national stage for the program’s first U SPORTS medal since their national championship in 2018.

The Thunderbirds persevered through the first three sets of the match, using extra points to defeat the Gaels in the first and second before falling in extra points in the third set. UBC would take the fourth set comfortably for the big four-set win in the bronze medal game.

“You dream of playing in environments like this,” said UBC Head Coach Mike Hawkins. “Everything is going to be an experience and a moment. You can shy away from the excitement or you can lean into it. For sure there were some moments the crowd did a great job of overwhelming us, but I thought the difficult moments, our guys really leaned into it.”

“For a bunch of young guys, they do a really good job of staying resilient and staying true to what we’re doing.”

“As I said to the group, I don’t know if proud even begins to describe. Our goal was to play on the last day of the season, and we were able to achieve that by winning the quarters. But all along we were just looking forward to the next challenge. They did an incredible job of stepping up today.”

Reeve Gingera, who was named Player of the Game for UBC in the win, led all players with 19 kills in the win, and finished with a .364 hitting percentage. Gingera also tied for the team high with nine digs.

“We love it, all year we look forward to playing the games with big crowds,” Gingera said post-game of the team stepping up in a big moment. “This is why we play, to play in front of the packed house.”

UBC finished the game with a .337 hitting percentage, compared to .193 for the Gaels.

MIKASA PLAYERS OF THE GAME
UBC: Reeve Gingera
Queen’s: Erik Siksna

STAT LEADERS

UBC
Kills: Reeve Gingera (19)
Points: Reeve Gingera (22)
Blocks: James Vincett (5)
Digs: Reeve Gingera, Logan Greves (9)
Service Aces: Gavin Moes (4)

Queen’s
Kills: Erik Siksna (12)
Points: Erik Siksna (23)
Blocks: Dax Thompkins (5)
Digs: Lhexen Rabit (7)
Service Aces: Erik Siksna (10)