VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds men's volleyball team is starting 2019 with a trip west to Hawaii. The Thunderbirds will play the Hawai'i Rainbow Warriors in a pair of non-conference games Friday and Saturday.
 
The contests at Honolulu's Stan Sheriff Center will start at 7 p.m. local time / 9 p.m. Pacific.
 
Hawai'i is the third-ranked team in the AVCA Top 15 Coaches Poll of programs at the highest level of NCAA men's volleyball. The team placed second in the Big West Conference last season.
 
"We are fortunate to be in Hawai'i to compete against a top NCAA team while getting in some great time spent together," said UBC head coach Mike Hawkins. "We have stressed to the guys the importance of continuing to build throughout this busy Christmas exhibition schedule and I think Hawaii will prove to be a great test in how hard we can compete and execute our style of play. While it will be easy to start feeling like we are on vacation, we are very much approaching this trip as another opportunity to work and get better."
 
The Thunderbirds (2-10 in conference action, and 6-14 overall) trained on Thursday, and will get to take part in team activities Sunday and Monday before returning home to prepare for the resumption of Canada West league play next weekend.
 

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?????? Continuing a tradition that has lasted over 35 years, UBC is honored to be hosting SKK University ???? from December 26 - January 2. A feature match will be played on December 31 at 1:00pm in War Memorial Gym. Both teams are headed up to Kamloops this weekend for an exhibition tournament. . . . . . . . . . #gobirdsgo #ubc #ubcthunderbirds #vancouver #korea #volleyball #blue #gold @lululemon @volleyballstuf

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Last week, it was UBC hosting international visitors as the men's squad from Sungkyunkwan University of South Korea travelled to Canada.
 
SKK and UBC competed in a four-team Thompson Rivers tournament in Kamloops, B.C.
 
The Thunderbirds dropped matches to Calgary on Dec. 28 (3-0) and host TRU on Dec. 29 (3-0) before sweeping SKK on Dec. 30 in straight sets.
 
A feature match on New Year's Eve was played at War Memorial Gymnasium with the Thunderbirds triumphing 3-0 over the Korean visitors.
 
"It has been an honour for us to host SKK over the past week and continue on the tradition and partnership that was created 33 years ago between our two programs," commented Hawkins. "It has been special for myself, our coaching staff, and our athletes to see another culture first-hand and to play against a very different style of volleyball. I have really enjoyed getting to speak to their coaches to not only get to know them as people, but hear their perspectives on our sport and how they approach coaching our team."
 
The SKK team played Douglas College on Jan. 2, and then continued training at UBC. They delegation will head to Whistler today, and will return to Vancouver for a few more days taking in the sights of the city before travelling back to Asia.
 
"I want to thank Dr. Han-Joo Eom of SKK, who was a former assistant coach at UBC under Dale Ohman, for continuing on the legacy of this partnership. It is a relationship I hope will continue to grow for years to come," remarked Hawkins.
 
UBC's next home games will take place Jan. 11-12 against MacEwan.