VANCOUVER – As temperatures begin to cool, the UBC Thunderbirds' men's volleyball team is just heating up.

With a short preseason in the rearview mirror, the 'Birds have been hitting the hardwood to gear up for two home games against a familiar foe in the University of Calgary Dinos this weekend to open the new campaign.

Last year was another for UBC's history books. After dominating the regular season and earning the top-ranked spot nationally with a 19-1 conference record, the 'Birds faced the Dinos in the Canada West Quarter Final, where they took both games en route to a bronze-medal finish.

"Calgary is a really good team. They've got a lot of talented young players who showed some great quality last year," began head coach Mike Hawkins. "Obviously, that playoff matchup was really tough; it really tested us. They're well coached and are going to be well prepared. So, a perfect team to play in the first weekend of the season in terms of challenging us in a bunch of different ways."



After the Canada West playoffs, the blue and gold travelled to Windsor, Ontario, for the U SPORTS National Championship. UBC opened with a pair of wins over Queen's University and the University of Manitoba before squaring off for gold against conference rival, the Trinity Western University Spartans.

In a wild, back-and-forth rematch of the 2017-2018 national title game – when UBC claimed their fourth gold medal in program history – the 'Birds fell in five sets to the Spartans to secure silver, marking their second podium finish in the last three years on the Canada-wide stage.

A key ingredient for UBC's recipe for recent success has been coach Hawkins, who's entering his ninth year at the helm and is coming off Coach of the Year honours. A former standout player in his own right, the Lethbridge native has been eyeing ways to build on last year's near-perfect campaign since the summer began. One way to plan for the end of the year is to start it on the right foot, and Hawkins had this in mind when structuring his squad's preseason tournament.

"We purposely backended our exhibition, so the three games that we hosted were against up-and-coming teams. It challenged us to be really clean with our systems and tactics. But this past weekend in Calgary, the Blue Team Cup, we went in saying, 'this is going to be four of the top six or seven teams in the country, let alone our conference'. So, we just knew they were going to be really high-end matchups."

The exhibition tournament offered an early test against some elite competition, but it also gave the 'Birds a chance to assess how its revamped roster would come together.

"We're at a point with our program where there's an understanding that we are a national championship calibre team. How we get there is probably going to be different than last year. It's not going to be a perfect climb to the top of the mountain with so many new faces. It'll take some time, but we're confident in the quality that we have in the gym."



The T-Birds face new challenges this season following the departure of several key players, including team captain Kieran Robinson-Dunning, who was the emotional leader for last year's national finalists. However, Hawkins is confident plenty of players on this current roster can step up and help fill that void.

"[Robinson-Dunning] was such a great leader for this group. I keep joking, he was the third full-time coach and was probably the grumpiest out of all of us. But he just had such a good way with the guys. He was great at communicating with both the athletes and the coaching staff and provided a nice harmony within the group. At the same time, we've had quite a few guys step up into the leadership role in a meaningful way already, which has been great to see."



Program turnover is inevitable, but it can be especially challenging when those graduating players are T-Bird record holders. Twin brothers, Mason and Logan Greves, departed after last season and had been instrumental in UBC's success over the last half-decade. Both etched their names amongst Canada West greats during their tenures, with Mason securing fourth all-time in assists and Logan ranking among the conference's top 20 in digs.

"We knew that the day was going to come, losing the Greves twins, but the nice thing is that we planned ahead by bringing in guys like Daniel Lewis and Parker Ocampo, who had international pedigree and a lot of success at the youth club level, while also bringing in Wil Basilio this year. A transfer from Ball State, someone who started the NCAA Final Four, and has played lots for the national team. So, it was more of a roster reset than a huge turnover, new faces but familiar performances."



Contributing to that roster reset is a mix of promising recruits and experienced transfers. College of the Rockies' Boston Thiessen, who earned PACWEST Setter of the Year last season, will be joining as a transfer alongside Basilio.

Adding even more depth are a handful of first-year recruits: a trio of outside hitters in Quinn Lightfoot, Jack Thompson and Alexandre Arseneault, while a pair of middles in Cooper Spehr and Simon Tate round out the rest of the new-look T-Birds. 

This weekend offers the 'Birds their first chance to put their new roster to the test as they begin another pursuit of Canada West supremacy, with hopes of claiming their first conference title in 40 years to go alongside the fifth national title in program history.

The journey back to the top begins this Friday, October 23, at 5:30 p.m. as the Thunderbirds take on the Dinos at War Memorial Gymnasium. Both sides will take to the courts once again on Saturday, October 24, at 4:00 p.m. to close out the two-game weekend series.