VANCOUVER – Last Friday night, the two remaining undefeated teams in Canada West – and top-two ranked teams in U SPORTS – fought across five sets inside the Langley Events Centre. With their own winning streak snapped in that heavyweight bout, the UBC Thunderbirds aim to return the favour against the Trinity Western Spartans in the rematch at War Memorial Gym this Friday, November 21, starting at 6:00 p.m. (PT).
The T-Birds certainly acquitted themselves well in the first half of the home-and-home series, roaring back after falling behind 2-0 in set count and pushing the fifth to a 15-13 score.
"Though we were disappointed with the result, there were a lot of good things to look at as far as our performance, but also a lot of meat left on the bone as far as thinks we think we can upgrade for this Friday's match," reflected UBC head coach
Mike Hawkins.
"In a really challenging environment to play in, going down 0-2 to a really quality team and then fighting back the way we did shows a lot about the personality and character of our group."
The two squads certainly each have the ability to light up opponents offensively, ranking No. 1 and No. 2 in Canada West in both points and kills per set, and tied for second in hitting percentage (.338), only behind Alberta.
Both teams are also top three in the conference in digs per set and aces per set, showing that there aren't many weaknesses on either side of the net.
The Spartans certainly have fantastic top-end talent, with a player leading Canada West in nearly every major statistical category. Outside hitter Kaden Schmidt tops the charts in kills per set (5.27), while middle blocker Zach Yewchuck (who only played a small role off the bench last weekend) leads in hitting percentage (.543).
Setter Anselm Rein averages 10.96 assists per set and 0.58 aces per set, conference-best in both categories, while libero Tate Calles is first-place in digs per set (2.69).
"Kaden Schmidt has been on an absolute tear to start the season," noted Hawkins. "I thought we did a good job of slowing him down in the middle sets last week, but he bounced back and made some big plays for them in the fifth. Same thing with Cory Schoenherr. Those are two guys who have been national team members for the majority of their time with Trinity. I think they both make a bigger impact than the stat sheet would suggest."
Of course, the Thunderbirds are no slouches themselves. All-Canadian setter
Mason Greves is off to another fantastic start to the season, ranking second in the conference in both assists per set (10.72) and digs per set (2.20).
The 'Birds also do a fantastic job of spreading around their attacks. They're the only team in Canada West who boast three players in the top 15 for kills per set, with
Reeve Gingera (3.12),
Dawson Pratt (3.04) and
Gavin Moes (3.00) all near equal in output. Pratt in particular is hitting .414, a blistering number for an outside hitter with the attacking volume that he has.
The middle blockers have been hyper-efficient on offence as well, with
Kieran Robinson-Dunning and
Alex Emery combining for 74 kills and just eight attack errors. They both fall short of ranking up at the top of the conference's hitting percentage leaderboard due only to not having quite high enough volume to qualify.
"When you look at the attack leaders, we're just not going to have guys right at the top because
Mason Greves, whether he means to or not, is diabolical in how evenly he distributes the offence," laughed Hawkins.
"Mason is second in assists per set in the conference, but that's with a couple of matches where our serve and block defence were so good that we didn't actually need to score that many points on offence. So, I still feel like the offence is the phase where we still have the biggest area to improve."
The Thunderbirds will aim to continue to make War Memorial Gym their fortress, having won 19 straight Canada West matches (regular season and playoffs) at home, dating back to February of 2024.
Home court has certainly been a factor when it comes to the UBC vs Trinity Western rivalry, with the home team winning each of their last seven regular season meetings.
The last time that the road team won in this series was when the Spartans defeated the Thunderbirds in Vancouver on January 29, 2022. Only three players who featured in that match are still playing for their respective teams: the Greves twins for UBC, and Calles for Trinity Western.
This weekend's clash will also be the first home game for the T-Birds in over a month.
"It's comical how long it's been since we've played at War Gym," said Hawkins. "You look at the schedule and it's clearly been a long time, but it feels 10 times worse than that to us right now.
"There's a lot of confidence that our guys take from playing at War, on that court, so we're excited to be back!"
The Thunderbirds have just three more matches to play before the winter break, and all of them are at home – including
Pride Night against the Winnipeg Wesmen on November 28. They'll aim to take full advantage of this stretch, beginning with their exciting bout against the Spartans at 6:00 p.m. (PT) this Friday.
CLICK HERE for tickets to see the top two teams in the country do battle at War Memorial Gym. The match will also be streamed live and on-demand on
CanadaWest.tv.
