KAMLOOPS, BC - The top-ranked UBC Thunderbirds clinched first place in the Canada West with a 3-0 (25-18, 25-16, 25-13) victory over the TRU Wolfpack on Saturday night in their regular season finale.
UBC (15-3) sits tied for first with Trinity Western atop the league standings with identical records, however, the T-Birds own the tiebreak which is sets won/lost. Both UBC and TWU finished the season with 49 sets won, however, the T-Birds only dropped 17 sets compared to 21 by the Spartans.
By virtue of their first place finish, the T-Birds will host the Canada West Final Four the weekend of February 25-26 as they receive a bye in the CW quarterfinals which are scheduled for next weekend.
"Finishing first overall in the Canada West is a great result for our team. We're pretty proud of that performance when you look back at the tough start we had to the year, missing four of our key players from last year. The pre-season wasn't great but our younger players really stepped up in the first half and then we've just gotten better every weekend since having everyone together since January," said UBC head coach
Doug Reimer.
On Saturday night, it was
Kyla Richey once again pacing the UBC attack with a match high 15 kills. Richey, who spent the first semester with Team Canada preparing and competing at the 2010 World Championships, has been stellar since rejoining UBC in January. The fourth-year outside hitter is averaging 3.71 kills per set on .298 hitting in the new year.
"I was petty impressed with Kyla's continued offensive performance. She's been very tough to handle since getting back into the groove of things this year," added Reimer.
Middles
Jessica von Schilling and
Jen Hinze were solid for the 'Birds, combining for 12 kills, two solo blocks, and four block assists to anchor UBC up front. Setter
Brina Derksen-Bergen put together another impressive stat line with 32 set assists, four digs, and three block assists.
UBC jumped out to an early lead in the first set, carrying over their dominating play from Friday night's three-set win. The host WolfPack got better as the set wore on and cut into the big UBC lead but were never able to get within striking distance of the visitors.
The hosts built off their promising finish to the first set and used a 4-0 run midway through the second to take a 13-12 lead. UBC, however, responded in a big way finishing the set on a 13-3 run to take the middle frame going away.
In the third and final set, the team exchanged points early on once again but with the score knotted at 12-12, UBC went on a 10-0 run to virtually close out the set and their regular season on a high note.
The T-Birds will welcome the three winners of the CW quarterfinals series to War Memorial Gym in two weeks time to battle it out for the conference title. The three CW medalists will then advance to the CIS Championship in Laval which are scheduled for March 4-6.
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