WINNIPEG – The UBC Thunderbirds are headed to the Canada West bronze medal match for the second straight season, as they fell to the Alberta Golden Bears in the first half of the Canada West Final Four Friday night at Winnipeg's Duckworth Centre.
Conference Player of the Year Isaac Heslinga had a team-high 14 kills as the Bears advanced to Saturday's championship match with a 3-2 (27-25, 16-25, 18-25, 25-18, 15-10) win. They will attempt to win three Canada West titles in a row against the hometown Winnipeg Wesmen, who beat Saskatchewan earlier in the night.
The Thunderbirds will draw the Huskies in a do-or-die bronze medal match with a berth at the U SPORTS National Championship on the line.
After dominating sets two and three, the T-Birds were derailed in the fourth and head coach
Mike Hawkins lamented the moments where the Bears stepped up to the challenge.
"I think we were just a little apprehensive in some of the bigger moments and that's kind of where they pulled away in the fourth," said Hawkins. "I think some of that spirit that they gained back we lost and then it was just like every little bounce off the block or 50-50 ball went their way."
Reeve Gingera had a match-high 16 kills along with nine digs for UBC.
Gavin Moes put up 13 kills and eight digs while
Kieran Robinson-Dunning added 11 kills and two blocks.
The first set was back-and-forth throughout, with neither team going up by more than two points until Alberta took a 17-14 lead to force a T-Birds timeout. UBC responded with a mini-run of their own, and eventually forced successive ties at 23, 24 and 25 points apiece. At that point though, Heslinga landed two clutch kills to take the opening set 27-25.
The Thunderbirds bounced back strongly in the second and third sets, not letting the Golden Bears hit 20 points in either of them. Kills from
Dawson Pratt and
Alex Emery made it 9-3 for the 'Birds early in the second, and they ran away with the frame from there.
Gingera and Moes combined for a series of kills to end the set at 25-16, and they continued to put up points as UBC took a 10-3 lead in the third. Alberta managed to cut the deficit to three at one point, but a late trio of kills from Moes and Pratt closed out the set to put the T-Birds up 2-1 overall.
Unfortunately, at that point things began to unravel for the 'Birds. A 7-1 run from Alberta early in the fourth set the tone, as they led nearly wire-to-wire in the set to set up a fifth and final frame.
There, it was again the Bears who jumped out in front, going up 8-5 at the halfway mark. Robinson-Dunning landed two big kills over the middle to try and keep it close, but Alberta managed to close it out at 15-10 to advance to the gold medal match.
The Thunderbirds will fight for bronze against the Huskies at 3:00 p.m. (PT) on Saturday in Winnipeg. This is the fourth postseason in a row that the two teams have faced off, with an even 3-3 record over the course of those three previous playoffs.
