EDMONTON – The UBC Thunderbirds have advanced to a U SPORTS national championship semifinal for a fourth straight year after a thrilling five-set win over the number one seed Trinity Western Spartans (25-23, 27-25, 23-25, 23-25, 16-14) Friday afternoon at the University of Alberta.
After the T-Birds took the first two sets by the slimmest of margins, the Spartans rallied back with two slim set wins of their own to force a fifth and deciding frame where the 'Birds ultimately prevailed in a match for the ages.
Fifth-year libero Sam Patko earned UBC's Player of the Match with a game-high 17 digs. 2019 U SPORTS Player of the Year
Kiera Van Ryk set a new career high with 32 kills along with 14 digs and a pair of service aces.
UBC will now face the Dalhousie Tigers in Saturday's semifinal scheduled for 5:30 p.m. PT Saturday.
"I'm just so proud of our team for continuing to find the energy and the reserve to keep coming back," said UBC head coach
Doug Reimer following the epic battle. "Our opponent gave us everything we could handle. Mentally, that just showed a lot for our group as a whole to have the resiliency. It was something we talked a lot about this year and our need to get better in that regard, so I'm just extremely proud of them."
A very tight first set established the pace for the rest of the match with neither team leading by more than two points at any time. The 'Birds took a 21-19 lead after finding holes on the TWU side of the court, forcing Spartans head coach Ryan Hofer into taking the match's first timeout.
After the two teams traded serving errors, the 'Birds earned set point, up 24-22. Still on set point after a Spartans kill, a Trinity serving error gave UBC the opening frame by a 25-23 score. T-Birds captain
Victoria Behie led with five kills in the set.
The Spartans stormed back with an 8-4 run to start the second set, thanks in part to a pair of UBC attacking errors. Following a timeout, the 'Birds rallied for four straight points on the strength of some solid
Jayde Robertsen serving and a strong attack to get back within one, 9-8, and stayed within one point at the technical timeout.
TWU put on a mini-roll to take a 21-18 lead, but the 'Birds battled back to tie the set at 22-22 and again at 23-23. A net violation error gave Trinity their first set point but a Robertsen kill at the front of the net forced the set into extra points. Van Ryk took away another TWU set point with one of her eight kills in the set, and earned the 27-25 victory on a Spartans net violation.
Fittingly, the third set was just as tight as the first two, that is until the Spartans went on a 4-0 run to take a 10-6 lead. A T-Birds timeout seemed to do the trick as the 'Birds got another kill from Robertsen followed by back-to-back Van Ryk service aces to cut the deficit to one.
Once again, the two teams went point-for-point with the Spartans taking a 16-15 lead into the technical timeout.
The Spartans earned set point on a Brie O'Reilly setter dump, and after UBC played the ball into a block, Trinity staved off elimination with the 25-23 third set win.
Unsurprisingly to anyone at the Saville Centre main court, the fourth set was a back-and-forth affair from the get-go until the Spartans struck for two straight points and a 16-13 lead at the technical timeout.
Slowly but surely, the 'Birds battled their way back to a 19-19 tie. After another long rally, the Spartans managed to get to set point up 24-23 and ended up forcing a fifth and final set with another 25-23 win.
The 'Birds earned a 10-7 advantage in the fifth and final frame, but the Spartans got three straight kills from Avery Heppell to pull to yet another tie. Tied again at 14-14, UBC ended the match with Van Ryk's 31st and 32nd kills.
The win makes it seven straight match wins for the T-Birds over the Spartans, including regular season and playoffs. But this March afternoon meeting was the closest of any of them with a total of 24 lead changes while the score was tied on 53 separate occasions.
UBC will get a bit more time to rest before their Saturday semifinal at the Saville Community Sports Centre.
"That's going to be a big test for us, how well we manage that rest and recovery and the preparation to play a team we haven't seen all season."
First serve for a chance to get back to the national championship final for the second time in the last three years is set for 5:30 p.m. PT
