VANCOUVER – The defending U SPORTS champion UBC Thunderbirds defeated the TRU Wolfpack 3-0 (25-16, 25-20, 25-7) for a second night in a row to sweep their best-of-three Canada West Quarter-Final series at War Memorial Gym on Saturday night. With the win, the 'Birds advance to the Canada West Final Four tournament and secure a spot at the U SPORTS Nationals.

"That second set win was key because they were bringing a lot to the table and if we let that go we'd be in for a really long match," said UBC head coach Doug Reimer after the game. "I thought by and large, we held our composure really well. We extended some plays and won some long rallies. We didn't let their best play kind of pull us down."

Fourth year outside hitter Akash Grewal led the blue and gold with 13 kills and six aces, Lucy Borowski had seven kills, four blocks, and three aces, while Emelie Silovs recorded a career-high six blocks and four kills.



"I think at the end of the day that's the difference, the second set was very close and they were able to sustain their level for a longer time than we could," said TRU head coach Chad Grimm. "I thought our battle was there, it's just the execution, when they get a free ball they take care of it and we didn't take care of it good enough to get the opportunities we needed to score so you could see offensively when you're hitting such a low number it's hard to compete."

Turkish outside hitter Rida Erlalelitepe tallied a team-high 11 kills for the visitors. Brooklyn Olfert added five kills.



Trinity Solecki teed up two blocks for a 7-3 UBC edge in the first, but a Maria Dancheva kill made it a three point set at 9-7. The 'Birds responded with a Grewal ace to force a TRU timeout at 17-11. Emma Doyon added a block for UBC set point at 24-15, before taking the first set 25-16 on a cross-court Grewal finish.

The Wolfpack stormed out to a 6-2 lead in the second with a Erlalelitepe kill followed by a Faith Christensen block. UBC went on to record five straight points to close the gap before pulling ahead 16-11 on a Wolfpack attacking error. The hosts held onto their lead and took the highly-competitive set at 25-20 off a Grewal kill.

Back-to-back Grewal aces brought UBC up 8-2 at the start of the third and a Borowski block extended their lead to 12-3. Borowski added an ace from the service line for a 10-point cushion, before a TRU service error handed the 'Birds set point at 24-7. Silovs downed an ace to take the set at 25-7 to win the quarter-final series.



"We've known for a while that this would be our last weekend at home," added Reimer, looking forward to the Semifinal round next week. "So the first thing we're going to do is enjoy having qualified for Nationals. And then we still don't know where we're going or who we will play next week till after tomorrow afternoon. So the question is are we ready to play well on the road?"

The 'Birds will next play in the Canada West Final Four on the weekend of March 7-9, the location of which has not yet been determined.