‘Birds host Heat in home court finale

The UBC Thunderbirds (7-5) are back at War Memorial Gym for their final home weekend of the season as they host the UBC Okanagan Heat (6-4) on Friday at 6:00 p.m. (PT) and Saturday at 3:00 p.m. (PT). The T-Birds will honour graduating seniors Laura MacTaggart and Jess Goodridge on Friday evening in recognition of their contributions in the blue and gold.

UBC is on a three-game win streak after a series sweep over the University of the Fraser Valley Cascades (5-7) in Abbotsford last weekend. With standout performances from Cara Kovacs, Claire Cossarini and both setters – Kayla Oxland and Lucy Borowski, the T-Birds earned back-to-back four-set road wins and are building momentum down the stretch. The ‘Birds are now second in the west division, just two points up on the UBCO Heat, with two weeks remaining in the regular season.

“I think it was another example of good depth and lots of players making solid contributions,” said UBC head coach Doug Reimer referencing last weekend’s sweep in the Valley. “As one of many examples – when Kayla sprained her ankle on the Saturday morning Lucy Borowski stepped in did a nice job setting her first full match. I think we can bring a lot of offence and different players are stepping up at various times.”

The Heat have dropped three straight outings coming into the weekend – losing a five-setter to the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack on January 29^th before falling 3-0 and 3-0 to the division-leading Trinity Western Spartans (11-1) on February 4^th and 5^th. This weekend will be the second series of the Canada West season for the teams who split their first two-game series in Kelowna in early December.

“We had two tough matches in December and I expect some great volleyball and a real battle both days,” added Reimer. “There were a lot of momentum swings as serving and passing ebbed and flowed on both sides.  To be successful we are going to have to keep improving on our overall team blocking and defence.”

Tickets for the home court finale are available online for free, while all the action will be streamed live on Canada West TV.