The University of British Columbia Athletics

Regina, SK - The UBC Thunderbirds CIS National Championship winning streak came to an end Sunday night in Regina, as the Manitoba Bisons defeated the Thunderbirds 3-0 (25-22, 25-22, 25-20) in the CIS National Final to win their first national title since 2002.

The Bisons picked the perfect time to play their best volleyball of the season, not dropping a set the entire championship and today keeping CIS Player of the Year Lisa Barclay in check, while dominating along the net to win decisively.

With the victory the Bisons snapped their 18 game losing streak (regular season and playoffs) to the Thunderbirds dating back to the 2007-08 season and earning their first playoff victory over UBC since 2002.

The Thunderbirds had their chances, but Manitoba's service game provided a lot of challenges for UBC.

"It's very difficult to get momentum going when our serve/receive was so inconsistent," said UBC head coach Doug Reimer "This was probably our weakest passing match of the year. Obviously the wrong time for that against a physical, good team that blocks the ball well."

Manitoba finished the match with 24 blocks compared to UBC's six. Emily Erickson and Jordana Milne each had six blocks while Brittany Habing had five and Rachel Cockrell finished with four for the Bisons.

UBC led 18-15 in the first set, before Manitoba went on run to go ahead 20-19. UBC would tie it up at 20-20, but their passing struggles would be their downfall in the late stages as the Bisons would take the opening set 25-22.

Considering the Thunderbirds lost the opening set in both the quarter final and semi final, they didn't seemed phased early on in the second set taking a 10-6 lead. The Bisons would then go on a 7-0 run to move in front 13-10 and lead 16-12 at the technical timeout. Again UBC was able to come back and tie it up at 19-19, but could not find away to get a kill past the Manitoba block, resulting in the Bisons taking the second set 25-22.

In the final set, the Bisons jumped out to a 12-7 lead and never looked back. The 'Birds continued to run into Manitoba's road block at the net, while Rachel Cockrell did the damage offensively for the Bisons with a game high 18 kills. The Bisons won the final set 25-20.

With the loss, UBC will share the record for consecutive women's volleyball national championship titles of six with Winnipeg and Alberta.

"For this group, given the turnover we had from last year, my expectation is that one year ago there were a lot teams that thought we wouldn't get back to this position so I want to give our group credit for what they have done through the year and in the last couple of weeks to give themselves a chance here," said Reimer. "However, it doesn't take away from the disappointment of not playing our best here today."

"It's difficult when you know you are one match away (from the streak ending), but I don't think that weighed on the team, but that definitely is the story, because if we won it would have put us in pretty elite company. Dynasties are built point by point and today we did not execute point by point and they are a deserving champion."

Barclay finished the game with a team high 13 kills, while Abbey Keeping had 10. Both were named to the all-tournament all-star team.

Manitoba's Rachel Cockrell was named the CIS Tournament MVP.