The UBC Thunderbirds gave themselves a big boost for the playoffs with a five-set (25-17, 16-25, 25-23, 19-25, 15-13) win over the Brandon Bobcats. The victory pushed UBC up to fourth place in the conference, meaning they will play at home in the Canada West quarterfinals next weekend.
“For us to have the grit and the resilience to wash away that fourth set I think shows you everything you need to know about our group,” said Thunderbirds head coach Mike Hawkins. “For us to have pulled this out and clinched homecourt is massive for this group.”
Gavin Moes continued his stellar weekend with 19 kills, 10 digs and five blocks. Nick Taub had a breakout performance with 12 digs and 10 digs, both career-highs, while Mason Greves dished out 48 assists along with four kills, six digs and four blocks.
Liam Pauls led the way for the Bobcats with 11 kills, 11 digs and four aces, while Paycen Warkenton put up seven kills and eight blocks.
The two teams went back and forth to begin the first, before Kieran Robinson-Dunning notched a kill and a block on consecutive plays to put the T-Birds up 8-6.
?? MVB | @ubcmvb‘s Gavin Moes executes the winning kill for the T-Birds giving them a 25-17 victory in the first set! #GoBirdsGo
Moes soon followed him up with a block and kill combo of his own, with Jon Lockie serving an ace to push the lead out to 19-13. UBC cruised from there with Moes ending the set at 25-17 off back-to-back kills.
The second set was quite the reversal of fortunes as Brandon jumped out to an immediate 5-0 advantage and never looked back from there. As the set wore on the lead ballooned out to 17-8 in favour of the visitors.
The Thunderbirds continued to fight, and traded points the rest of the way, but the Bobcats tied up the match with a 25-16 set win.
The third was a much closer battle, with neither team able to create separation until Brandon took an 11-9 lead. UBC punched back though with a massive run to take a 21-14 lead.
The momentum all seemed to be on the side of the Thunderbirds, but the Bobcats suddenly responded with seven straight points to tie the match. UBC managed to prevail in the clutch moments, with a Moes cross-court kill making it 24-23 before a massive solo block from Greves took the set.
Just like in the second, Brandon responded to a T-Birds set win with a big start in the fourth. A 10-2 run early on pushed them out to an 11-5 lead, before back-to-back blocks by Jesse Umoren and Moes cut into the lead.
UBC got the lead to as little as three points, but they could not close the gap any further as the Bobcats put together another run and took the set 25-19.
Robinson-Dunning put forward a massive performance in the fifth, with a solo block to take the lead for UBC midway through the set before recording back-to-back kills a few points later to make it 12-10.
UBC managed to stay just ahead of the Bobcats from there, with a Taub sideline kill making it 14-12 before the match ended two plays later on a Brandon service error.
The win means UBC ends the regular season with a record of 16-8. They will take on Saskatchewan next weekend in a best-of-three quarter-finals series.
This is the third year in a row that the Thunderbirds have played the Huskies in the postseason. In 2022 they lost in a neutral site match as part of the first-round group stage play in that year’s modified playoff format. In 2023 the Huskies prevailed 2-1 in a best-of-three quarter-finals series in Saskatoon.
The first match of this year’s quarterfinals round will be held at War Memorial Gym on Friday, February 23rd.