The UBC Thunderbirds return to conference play at War Memorial Gym on Friday, November 12
th, and Saturday, November 13
th, as they host the University of the Fraser Valley Cascades to open their Canada West regular season and celebrate pride with the annual Pride Night festivities on Friday evening.
Pride Night is an opportunity to celebrate inclusivity at UBC and LGBTQIA2S+ pride in partnership with the
Vancouver Gay Volleyball Association. Fans are encouraged to dress up colourfully for the occasion and show their support while enjoying both the volleyball and additional entertainment during breaks in play. The UBC Equity & Inclusion Office offers further resources on
sexual and gender diversity specifically for LGBTQ+ and questioning students, connections to communities that support sexual diversity, and information on how to be an ally on campus.
Friday night is also UBC's first competitive conference action on the Point Grey campus since February of 2020 after the team enjoyed an opening week bye.
"Even though we were fortunate last season to have training and a few exhibition matches against TWU, nothing beats playing an official Canada West match in front of friends and family at War Memorial Gym," said UBC head coach
Mike Hawkins. "It almost feels surreal to think that we'll be back on that historic floor kicking off our 2021-2022 season."
This season's roster features three key additions in
Easton Sarich,
Logan Greves, and
Mason Greves who join a strong core of returning T-Birds like
Tyson Smith,
Michael Dowhaniuk,
Coltyn Liu, and
Matt Neaves.
"Though we have lost a few key athletes from the team that would have competed last season, like
Nick Mickelberry and
James Takken, we're fortunate to have retained the majority of our core group of guys," said Hawkins. "We have a talented group of veterans that are looking to continue building off our 2019-2020 season results. On top of that, we've added some really talented young athletes that will contend for impactful roles immediately this year."
While UBC had a week off matches to start the conference schedule, the Cascades opened their season with a tough road series against the UBC Okanagan Heat – dropping the first match in five sets before falling in straight sets the following evening.
"The Cascades are the new kids on the block in the Canada West, but Coach Bennett has done a good job in bringing talented athletes to compete right away," said Hawkins. "They have a number of strong attackers and an athletic setter, so they're going to pose some challenges to us defensively. At this point in the season, however, our focus needs to be on piecing together all the work we've been in through pre-season and putting forth a strong effort. If we do that well and feed off the energy of the crowd, I'm confident in our group to get the results."
Tickets for Pride Night on Friday are sold out, but Saturday night tickets are still available and free! For more information and ticket availability check
here.
First serve on Friday's home opener is at 7:30 p.m. (PST), while Saturday night's match gets underway at 6:30 p.m. (PST). Games can also be streamed live on
Canada West TV.
