Need to Know

The UBC Thunderbirds women's volleyball team (17-7, 4th in Canada West, T-5th in the CIS rankings) will kick off their 2016 playoff campaign this weekend, as they take on the Brandon Bobcats (15-9, 4th in Canada West) in a best of-three Canada West quarterfinal series.
 
Games will run daily from Friday, February 26, to Sunday, February 28, with the Friday and Saturday contests starting at 7:00 p.m. (PT), while the matchup on Sunday (if necessary) is set for a 2:00 p.m. (PT) start. All games will be played at War Memorial Gym.
 

Last Week

The 'Birds earned a split against the fourth-ranked Trinity Western Spartans in their regular-season-ending series, falling 3-1in the first game before rebounding with   a 3-0 straight-sets win in the second contest.

By The Numbers

12.83 –A roster loaded with talent on the outside has helped the 'Birds average 12.83 kills-per-set, the highest total in both the Canada West and CIS as a whole – the Toronto Varsity Blues sit second at 12.75.
                                        
0.249 – The T-Birds have amassed those kills with considerable accuracy, as well, as they are ranked atop Canada West and third in CIS with a hitting percentage of 0.249.
 

The Matchup 

Brandon and UBC squared off with one another less than two months ago – coming off the holiday break and with injuries to veterans Danielle Brisebois (Bolton, Ont.) and Juliana Kaufmanis (Richmond, B.C.), the 'Birds fell 3-0 and 3-1 to the Bobcats in their only two matches of the regular season.
 
Brandon will come into War Memorial Gym on an insane 12-0 run stretching back to the beginning of the 2016 calendar year. The Bobcats have only dropped 11 sets in that time frame,which includes straight-set wins over Saskatchewan, UBC, Mount Royal, and MacEwan.
 
After a 3-9 start to the season, the Brandon resurgence has been powered by fifth-year left side attacker Shanlee McLennan. Over the 12-game win streak, McLennan has posted 161 kills in 46 sets, good for a 3.5 kill-per-set average that would put her fifth in Canada West had she averaged that mark for the entire season.
 

Coach's Take

"We're a different team than we were last time, just because of the volume of injuries that we were dealing with and coming off a long layoff," said Thunderbirds head coach Doug Reimer, referring to the team's last series against the Bobcats. "Having said that, Brandon has improved a lot since January, and have grown as a team. I've been watching what they've been doing recently and, while we rely on power, they take more time to set up the ideal shot. Playing and losing to them was good for us in the sense that it allowed us to see our own flaws. This time, we just have to execute, both in terms of stopping what they do well, while also playing to our own strengths."