Regina, SK -
The UBC Thunderbirds are going back to the CIS semi-finals after defeating the host Regina Cougars 3-1 (22-25, 25-23, 25-12, 25-16) Friday night in front of a raucous home crowd in Regina, Saskatchewan at the CIS National Championships.
UBC, the six-time defending champions, were the top seed coming into the tournament, while the Cougars were the number eight seed, having been bounced from the Canada West playoffs two weeks ago.
The story of the game was the second set. After Regina won the first set 25-22, they jumped out to a 9-3 lead thanks to some solid defence, coupled with some timely mistakes from UBC. However, the Thunderbirds would slowly chip away, cutting the lead to just three points at the technical timeout, 16-13. Once again though, the Cougars extended the lead to four points to go up 21-17. That is when CIS Player of the Year Lisa Barclay took charge with a couple of huge kills to rally her team to a 25-23 victory and in the process silencing the Regina faithful.
"I don't think you want to be down 2-0 to the host team with them playing that well, frankly it would have been tough, " said UBC head coach Doug Reimer. "I'm not saying we couldn't do it, but to come back showed a lot and that was critical. Not only to come back, but to keep the pressure going. That is the sign of a good championship team. There were a lot of good character moments from a number of key people today."
UBC never looked back the rest of the way, defeating the Cougars 25-12 in the third set and 25-16 in the fourth set to earn the victory.
Barclay had a game high 20 kills to go along with 13 digs to lead the Thunderbirds. Rosie Schlagintweit and Juliana Kaufmanis each had eight kills respectively.
Second Team All-Canadian Desiree Ates led the Cougars with 14 kills, while Michelle Sweeting had 12 kills of her own.
The Thunderbirds did not get off to an ideal start falling behind 5-2 in the opening set. A six point run, led by the serving of Abbey Keeping put UBC in front 8-5. Regina though would claw back in and the set would go back and forth tied at 11, 13, 15, 18, 19, and 20 before the Cougars went ahead 21-20. UBC then gave up a couple of free points on over bumps and for good measure a service error to hand the first set to Regina 25-22.
The story of the third and fourth sets was UBC's stellar defence. They refused to give up any free points, handling everything the Cougars could fire at them. In both sets they led 16-8 at the technical timeout and were never challenged after that.
The Thunderbirds will face Laval Rouge et Or in tomorrow's semi-final at 6:00 pm PST. UBC defeated Laval 3-0 in the CIS National Championship quarter-final last year.
