The two-time defending U SPORTS National Champion UBC Thunderbirds are set to battle one of the hottest teams in the country to open up play at the Canada West Final Four on Friday, taking on the Saskatchewan Huskies with a berth in a second straight conference championship match on the line.
Hosted by the University of Alberta, the winner of UBC's semifinal will take on either the Manitoba Bisons or Alberta Pandas for the conference crown.
All four teams have already punched their ticket to next week's U SPORTS National Championship hosted by the University of Manitoba, but the opportunity to come out on top in the country's most challenging conference will surely pay dividends heading into the big dance in Winnipeg.
"Ultimately the national championship is the goal so you want to be trying to set yourself up as best as possible for success there," said UBC head coach and 11-time national championship winning bench boss,
Doug Reimer. "I'm hoping we've had some growth as a group, and that includes mentally in terms of handling situations and drawing on some of those experiences."
The T-Birds opened up the conference playoffs with a resounding pair of straight set sweeps over the Thompson Rivers WolfPack in last week's quarter-finals. Having entered the post-season with three losses in their final four matches, it was a much-needed response from the group which has put the rest of the country on notice that the winners of three of the last five national titles have every intention of getting back to another U SPORTS gold medal match.
"We've played some average volleyball in the last month and some very good volleyball, and last weekend was the latter," Reimer continued. "Last weekend we were able to bring our strengths to the table as individuals and a group. Every match is a new match, I'm hoping we see a mindset that this is how we need to play to be successful and let's do it again against an unfamiliar opponent."
It's been a minute since the T-Birds and Huskies last met on the court – back in February of 2024 in the penultimate weekend of last regular season.
Saskatchewan finished the 2024-25 campaign a mediocre 10-10 but enter Friday's semifinal having won two straight playoff series including last weekend's quarter-final upset over the top seeded and No. 3 ranked Fraser Valley Cascades.
"They're fully deserving of being in this final four, this is not like a one match upset or anything like that. Since Christmas they're playing very good volleyball. It makes for more work just because it's players and a team we're not familiar with."
The 'Birds will only have plenty of game footage to go over in their scouting for Friday, but the situation works both ways as the two unfamiliar foes go head-to-head in the post-season for the first time in decades.
First serve is set for 3:00 p.m. PT Friday at the University of Alberta's Saville Sports Centre. The match will be available live on
Canada West TV.
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