VANCOUVER – Tonight will mark the return of the Thunderball Men's Volleyball Tournament to UBC's War Memorial Gymnasium after a two-year hiatus.
FULL TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
The No. 10 ranked UBC Thunderbirds welcome three other teams; Guelph, No. 3 Manitoba and Thompson Rivers, to Vancouver. They will compete in a round robin format to decide which schools will play in the gold and bronze-medal matches.
“This tournament is a good tune up for our regular season (which opens up the week after) as it will give us a good opportunity to get some game action vs. quality opponents,” said UBC head coach
Richard Schick.
“This is going to be the first test to see how we size up against some of the competition from our conference. Manitoba has a lot of veteran players and is going to be one of the most competitive teams in the country. TRU is a slighty different team from last year; with a lot of their new imports, they provide an international flavour and are always a gritty, competitive group.”
Before UBC plays their conference rivals this weekend, the team will open the tournament tonight at 7 p.m. against the Guelph Gryphons of Ontario University Athletics.
“Any time we can get a team from the OUA, it's good for both conferences,” said Schick. “It's good to see the perspective of the other leagues across the country.”
The Gryphons will be led by fifth-year right side Winston Rosser, who was named to the OUA's First All-Star Team last season.
Manitoba features Second Team All-Canadian Chris Voth, while TRU's Brad Gunter was named to the CIS All-Rookie Team last year, joining T-Bird
Jarrid Ireland (Winnipeg, MB)
UBC is 3-2 in non-conference play so far this season. On Monday, UBC dropped a four-set BC Cup game to Trinity Western in Abbotsford. The T-Birds also swept a two-game home series against Fudan University on Oct. 6 and 10.
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