The UBC Thunderbirds relied on a total team effort en route to a second straight comeback victory, this time 3-1 (23-25, 25-18, 25-23, 25-20) to close out their Canada West quarter final series against the Saskatchewan Huskies Saturday evening at War Memorial Gym.
The win also exacted a measure of revenge for the T-Birds who were eliminated from the playoffs last season by the Huskies. This time it was the ‘Birds coming out on top with a 2-0 sweep of the best-of-three series for the right to advance and visit the Alberta Golden Bears in the conference semifinal beginning next weekend in Edmonton.
The Thunderbirds dropped the first set but then rallied to win the match while taking advantage of contributions across the roster, with five players getting at least eight kills. T-Birds head coach Mike Hawkins praised the next man up mentality for his team that’s missing multiple players due to injury.
MVB | @ubcmvb close out their
quarter-final series with a 3-1 victory over the Saskatchewan Huskies! The T-Birds advance to the @CanadaWest semifinals at Alberta next weekend. #GoBirdsGo
“We’re down a bunch of really significant bodies, so we knew we needed to find the small margins to win,” said coach Hawkins. “The guys trusted the coaches, trusted each other and trusted themselves.”
Gavin Moes led the way for UBC with 18 kills, five digs, four blocks and three assists. Dawson Pratt impressed in his first career start as a T-Bird with 11 kills, 12 digs and four blocks, while Mason Greves put up 46 assists, 15 digs, three kills and three aces.
Emmett Graham served a career-high six aces for the Huskies along with 14 kills and six digs. Isaiah Mamer added 13 kills and eight digs in the losing effort.
Kieran Robinson-Dunning got UBC going with a couple kills to begin the first, but the Huskies soon pushed out to a 12-8 lead. The Thunderbirds kept battling, and finally tied it up at 21 after kills from Conaire Taub and Jesse Umoren.
The set went all the way down to the wire, but it was Saskatchewan who closed it out with a 25-23 victory to take a 1-0 set lead for the second straight night.
From there, UBC began to take control. An ace by Moes gave the hosts a 15-13 lead in the second, before an ace from Greves a little bit later pushed the advantage out to three points.
A Robinson-Dunning block made it 23-18, followed immediately by another ace from Greves and an emphatic block from Pratt to even up the set count at one apiece.
The T-Birds started the third set on a tear, jumping out to a 4-0 lead that expanded to 10-4, capped by a pair of kills in quick succession by Umoren. The Huskies fought back and cut the lead to two, but kills from Greves and Moes put the UBC advantage at 22-18.
Saskatchewan continued to battle from there, and gave the T-Birds a real scare by getting within a single point at 24-23. Unfortunately for the visitors, they then committed a service error to give UBC the 25-23 victory.
Up two sets to one and with the chance to close out the match and the series, the Thunderbirds didn’t waste their opportunity. The two teams went back and forth for the first half of the set before Pratt made it 14-12 for UBC with a kill.
The Huskies made a push and managed to tie the score at 19, but consecutive blocks from Pratt and Moes nudged the T-Birds ahead once again. With the match hanging in the balance, Moes delivered with two more kills to take the set 25-20 and clinch a Canada West Semifinals berth.
This is the first time the Thunderbirds have made it to the second round of the playoffs since the 2019-20 season. That year, they lost to Alberta in the semifinals, and that’s exactly who they will face again this time around.
The Golden Bears have homecourt advantage in the series after finishing with the #1 seed in Canada West. The T-Birds faced off against Alberta on the road in a weekend series in January, with UBC winning both matches. Despite that recent success Coach Hawkins said that he knows his team is in for a tough battle.
“Playoffs are always a different beast,” said Hawkins. “I think we can go in there with confidence, but we know that it’s a completely new series. We know that we’re going to have to continue playing our style of volleyball, continue imposing our will, and see what happens.”
Game 1 of the best-of-three semifinals series will be on Friday, March 1st in Edmonton.