The University of British Columbia Athletics

VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds men's volleyball team will play its first home games of the 2013-14 season this weekend as the program hosts the annual Thunderball Tournament at War Memorial Gymnasium.
 
FULL TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
 
The event runs Thursday through Saturday and will feature four squads including the host T-Birds. Teams from the Mt. Royal University and the University of Saskatchewan will make the trip to Vancouver, while the final entry will be comprised of a group of former university-level players who suited up at several Canada West schools.
 
UBC is 6-1 in the preseason so far. The Thunderbirds lost to Trinity Western in Surrey on Sept. 24 but have since reeled off six consecutive wins including two neutral-site victories over Trinity Western and Camosun College and four in Kamloops at the Thompson Rivers WolfPack Invitational last weekend.
 
The Saskatchewan Huskies finished second at last week's University of Regina Invitational. They beat Regina 3-2 and Manitoba 3-0 in their first two matches before dropping the next two, in five sets, to Brandon.
 
Mt. Royal hosted their own tournament in Calgary last weekend, splitting their four games. The week before, the Cougars won two of three matches at the University of Alberta invitational.
 
The Canada West Alumni team will feature seven former UBC Thunderbirds, including current assistant coach Matt LeBourdais, former Canada West All-Star Robert Bennett and 2001 Canada West Rookie of the Year Dave Beleznay.

Former Canadian national team member John Galloway will also play for the alumni squad, which will open the Thunderball tournament on Thursday night at 7 p.m. against UBC. The gold-medal match will be contested Saturday at 7 p.m.
 
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