VANCOUVER – The seventh ranked UBC Thunderbirds upset the No. 1 seed and defending champion Trinity Western Spartans 3-2 (25-23, 22-25, 21-25, 25-18, 15-12) in a dramatic five-set thriller to win gold at the 2023 U SPORTS Women's Volleyball Championship at War Memorial Gym in Vancouver, B.C.
Intensity radiated through War Memorial Gym before the match even began as supporters from both local rivals filled the 2,100-seat historic venue and roared after every point.
"You can probably hear by the sound of my voice how important the home crowd was," said a raspy toned long time UBC head coach
Doug Reimer when asked how his 10
th national title differed from the previous nine. "It's the first one of those 10 championship titles that I've won in a home gym and first time in 26 years to even have nationals on home court. We had to string together three really good matches in three days after we hadn't performed that well so it's pretty incredible from that point of view."
A series of runs early in the first set saw each team overcome four-point deficits before going tit for tat as their scores reached the 20s. After TWU fended off the first potential set point, UBC's
Cara Kovacs finished it off 25-23 with a kill that sent the home fans into a frenzy. The Spartans came out re-energized in the second, quickly grabbing a massive 11-2 lead. UBC clawed back to make 24-22, but that was as close as they would come, as Trinity tied the match at one set apiece. Neither team could build a significant lead in the third, the back-and-forth set was tied at 10 different points and no team led by more than two until the Spartans went up 21-18. Trinity held on from there, putting away UBC 25-21 on a kill from Meghan Mealey. The fourth set started with a four-point Spartans run, but the 'Birds soon ripped off an 8-0 run of their own to wrestle back the lead. The two teams were knotted up again at 16, before UBC went on another six-point run and pulled away to win 25-18.
The final set to decide the national champion began with the two rivals going blow for blow. A perfectly placed tip by
Jayde Robertsen gave UBC an 8-6 lead at the technical switch. The two teams exchanged small advantages from there until the T-Birds went on a 5-0 run to set up match point, powered by a pair of aces for
Kayla Oxland. A frantic rally ensued, which ended when UBC's
Elise Petit used the final swing of her U SPORTS career to slam the ball off a pair of blockers and out of play to win the title in front of the home crowd.
"I'm searching for one answer," added Reimer. "But I know a couple of the players talked in previous interviews about how hard they worked to connect over the last month. And there were times in each match, and it built, especially today because Trinity, that's a championship team. Partway through the fourth set, we just knew that they weren't going away. We knew we were going to have to completely earn this. They hung in there and then we just had a whole bunch of players step up with a lot of good plays all over the place. There's nothing really you can say other than it's an incredible feeling and knowing that we can hang in there and come back so many times, makes it special."
Petit, who was named the tournament MVP, led all hitters with 20 kills to go along with 13 digs. UBC's
Kacey Jost had a game-high 25 digs while chipping in six assists.
Cara Kovacs also contributed 13 kills and 10 blocks for the T-Birds. TWU's Kaylee Plouffe, Ansah Odoom and Savannah Purdy each had a team-high 14 kills. Setter Dora Komlodi has 52 assists for Trinity while also leading the team with 21 digs.
UBC takes home its U SPORTS-leading 13th national championship after hosting the tournament for the first time in 40 years. The win also marks head coach
Doug Reimer's 10th national title victory and ninth as UBC head coach. The T-Birds have won 16 U SPORTS medals under Reimer, including nine gold, four silver and three bronze.
Mikasa Players of the Game
Tournament All-Stars
Setter – Dora Komlodi (TWU)
Libero –
Kacey Jost (UBC)
Left Side – Lucy Glen-Carter (DAL)
Outside Hitter – Raya Surinx (MAN)
Middle blocker –
Jayde Robertsen (UBC)
Middle blocker – Kaylee Plouffe (TWU)
MVP –
Elise Petit (UBC)
Fair Play Award – Brett Boldon (DAL)
