LANGLEY – The UBC Thunderbirds (13-6) dropped a 3-2 slugfest (27-29, 25-11, 25-13, 23-25, 15-10) to the Trinity Western Spartans (12-7) in the first half of the home-and-home series between the Lower Mainland rivals.
The T-Birds pulled out an extremely tight first set that went deep into extra points before taking one-sided losses in both the second and third to push them to the brink. Far from folding up and going home, the ‘Birds showed their mettle with their backs against the wall by grinding out a narrow fourth set victory to force a fifth. Though the Spartans held them off in the final frame, forcing the set to be played gave the T-Birds an important, tie-breaking point, and took one away from Trinity, amid an incredibly close Canada West playoff race.
Reeve Gingera was the top attacker for UBC, picking up 15 kills along with a match-high seven blocks. Mason Greves had a tidy 33 assists for the ‘Birds while leading all players with eight digs. Gavin Moes chipped in with eight kills, five digs and a solo block.
For the Spartans, Henry Rempel led all hitters with 21 kills while adding a pair of aces. Kaden Schmidt had a well-rounded showing, picking up eight kills, seven digs, five blocks, and a match-best four aces. Overall, the Spartans out-aced the Thunderbirds 14-3.
It was a hot start for the home side, with the Spartans going on a four point run early in the first set to take the lead. The T-Birds steadily battled back to go up 13-10 midway through the set, but it was soon tied back up at 16-16. The teams went blow for blow up to 23-23 before Gingera made an athletic one-on-one block on Rempel to give the ‘Birds set point. The Spartans fought that off, and three more UBC set points after it, before Rempel hit an attack long on UBC’s fifth set point to give the blue and gold a hard-fought 29-27 win in the opening frame.
The second set got away from the T-Birds quickly. Trinity jumped out to an 8-1 lead and no number of subs and timeouts from UBC could turn the momentum. The Spartans doubled their advantage over the remainder of the frame to take it 25-11 and knot the match at 1-1.
UBC showed new life to start the third, jumping out to a 6-2 lead. Trinity quickly turned the tables however by ripping off a 7-0 run to take a 9-6 lead and force a T-Birds timeout. The ‘Birds could not grab the momentum back, as the Spartans steadily built their advantage and ended up taking a second straight set in decisive fashion, 25-13.
In the fourth set, John Lockie provided an early spark for the T-Birds, slamming home an emphatic kill to give the visitors a 3-2 lead. The ‘Birds self-belief kept building after subsequent back-to-back blocks put them up 5-2. However, a savvy timeout from the Spartans seemed to slow the momentum and Trinity quickly evened things up at 7-7. Neither team could gain an edge for the next 18 points, as they traded one point leads up to 16-16. A gorgeous crosscourt kill from Moes put the ‘Birds up 20-18, but Rempel refused to let his team fall out of the set, practically single-handedly powering the Spartans back into a 23-22 lead by picking up kill after kill. The T-Birds then showed more resilience with their backs against the wall, staying alive in a long rally until TWU took a net violation, then blocking Rempel, before Moes slammed an attack off of a Spartans block and out of bounds to push the match to a fifth set.
The long night of volleyball seemed to be wearing on both teams in the fifth, as they combined to miss five consecutive serves early in the frame. The Spartans cleaned things up first and managed back-to-back kills before the fifth set switch to go up 8-5. Trinity managed to turn back UBC attackers repeatedly over the next few points before Lockie broke through to cut the Spartans’ lead to 11-8. That was as close as the ‘Birds came, with Rempel hammering home a kill from the back row to set up match point before a T-Birds attack error ended it at 15-10.
The two teams are squaring off again within 24 hours, scheduled for a 7:45 p.m. (PT) start for the second half of their home-and-home series at War Memorial Gym on Friday. That match is part of Pride Night at UBC, with fans encouraged to dress up colourfully to celebrate 2SLGBTQIA+ communities. Tickets may still be available here. Stream all of the action, live or on demand, on Canada West TV.