T-Birds’ quest for three-peat begins in Winnipeg

WINNIPEG, Man. – The two-time defending U SPORTS Champion UBC Thunderbirds begin their quest for a three-peat this weekend when they kick off their Canada West regular season with a trip to Winnipeg. The T-Birds will be taking on the Wesmen twice, first at 1:00 p.m. (PT) on Saturday and then at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday, both at the Duckworth Centre.

The blue and gold followed up a thrilling 2023 national championship victory on their home floor with a dominant 2023-24 campaign, going 22-2 and only dropping only 12 sets across the entire regular season. They followed that up with a Canada West silver medal, earning a trip to McMaster for the U SPORTS Championships where they defeated rising rivals Alberta and Manitoba en route to their second straight Canadian crown and 14^th national championship in program history; twice as many as the next closest school.
 

With seven graduating seniors on last year’s team, there are plenty of new T-Birds for fans to fall in love with this season. But as 12-time national champion head coach Doug Reimer notes, it’s the continued growth and development of his returning players that will determine the fate of his squad.

“I’ve seen a lot of growth from players who got a lot of court time last year, Lucy Borowski had a summer with the indoor national team, Akash Grewal played a lot beach, both of them are providing a lot,” mused Reimer, as he enters his 28th season with UBC. “Then some players who haven’t maybe had as much court time too, I’ve really been impressed with how hard they’ve worked and where they are at compared to where they were a year ago.”

First up for the blue and gold is a Wesmen team that took a step back to 9-15 last year, after posting a strong 18-6 mark in 2022-23. Winnipeg’s lackluster record belies a strong statistical underbelly, as they ranked closer to the middle of the conference in most major categories and finished second in both digs and digs per set.

Last season, the T-Birds also took a trip to Winnipeg and came away with 3-1 and 3-0 victories.

“They always compete hard, I know they train hard and that translate to competition,” praised Reimer, the reigning Canada West Coach of the Year. “They’ve got a number of players who have returned, some very good experience and older players. There are some familiar faces on their roster.”

“Beyond that, because we played them so early on last season, we haven’t seen them for a long time. So I think these matches will come down to our ability to be calm in a new environment and focus on our side of the net and what we can control, because the first weekend of the league always has its ups and downs.”

The season opening series is available to stream, live or on demand, on Canada West TV.

UBC returns for its home opener next weekend, the first of a back-to-back with the Regina Cougars, both Friday and Saturday’s match start at 7:00 p.m. (PT) at War Memorial Gym.