VANCOUVER – The Thunderbirds will be put to the test straight out of the holiday break this weekend, as they start the second half of their season defending their position atop the Canada West standings in Kelowna against the second-place UBC Okanagan Heat.
WEBCAST AND LIVE STATISTICS
The CIS No. 1 T-Birds are 12-0 this season and riding a 37-match unbeaten streak dating back to October 2012, but keeping it alive through this weekend will be a real challenge. The Heat are 10-2 and winners of six straight conference matches. That streak runs up to 10 if you include four exhibition matches against CIS opponents over the holiday break, and the Heat haven't lost a single set in any of those 10 matches.
Both teams' impressive records are thoroughly backed up by the numbers. UBC and UBC Okanagan rank one-two, in that order, in hitting percentage, opponent hitting percentage, kills and assists. They are ranked first and third, respectively, in service aces. And UBC Okanagan ranks first in conference digs. In fact the only Canada West team stat category that isn't led by one of these two teams is blocking, where UBCO is second and UBC fourth.
At the individual level, it's more of the same. Three of the top four conference hitting percentage leaders will clashing at the middle blocker position when these teams meet this weekend. UBCO's Katy Klomps leading all players with a .388 average, while UBC's
Mariah Bruinsma is second at .373 and
Abbey Keeping is fourth at .333.
Klomps is also second in Canada West with 1.60 blocks per game, providing a huge defensive presence at the net for the Heat. Keeping and Bruinsma also both show up in the blocking top 10, and both have made big contributions at the service line too, where they rank second and 10th respectively in aces.
The Thunderbirds also have the conference kills leader in
Lisa Barclay, who averages 4.30 kills from the outside, and the second-leading setter in
Kirsty Setterlund, averaging 10.41 assists per set. And the Heat have libero Lenai Schmidt, who ranks second with 4.00 digs per game, to round out their impressive lineup.
With so much league-leading talent on the same floor and so much at stake in the conference standings, this should be an intense battle. It's probably the most important series of the regular season for UBC, as a sweep would give them an iron grip on first place, while a sweep for the Heat would vault them past the 'Birds and into first.
