WINDSOR, Ont. – They might have dropped their first set of action at the 2026 U SPORTS Men's Volleyball Championship, but the Thunderbirds were unfazed as they responded by taking the next three in a row to triumph over the OUA champion Queen's Gaels (19-25, 25-18, 25-17, 25-20).
For the third match in a row,
Reeve Gingera earned the Player of the Game nod for UBC, with 15 kills, four digs and two aces on a .345 hitting percentage. Not to be outdone,
Dawson Pratt had 13 kills, 10 digs and two blocks, while
Alex Emery was hyper-efficient over the middle with a perfect seven kills on seven attack attempts along with three digs and two blocks.
Nikola Mitrovic had 14 kills for the Gaels but was held to a .188 hitting percentage. Setter Chris Zimmerman dished out 33 assists to go with five digs.
After a fast start from the Gaels, five straight points from UBC – headlined by three kills from
Alex Borowski as well as a block from him and
Kieran Robinson-Dunning – gave the 'Birds a 10-9 lead. They were unable to establish a bigger advantage, however, and a series of attack errors from balls hit too far over the endline put Queen's back out in front.
The Ontario side maintained their advantage for the rest of the set, as while a
Mason Greves ace made it a 21-19 score late, the Gaels proceeded to score the next four points to end off the set, with some scrambling defensive plays leading to a pair of Mitrovic kills on the final two rallies.
The second started better for UBC, with a block from Borowski and Robinson-Dunning followed by another Greves ace scoring the first two points of the set. The Thunderbirds proceeded to get an offensive rhythm going as the set went along, hitting .375 as a team overall after just .121 in the first.
The T-Birds never trailed in the second, although it featured a number of ties and slim leads up until the late stages. With the T-Birds making a push to go up by four, Pratt came through with a couple of great plays in quick succession – first switching to his off-hand on a kill down the sideline before facing a triple block and deftly tapping the ball over the outstretched hands of the Queen's defence.
That second play was followed by three more UBC kills in a row on a serving run led by
Calvin Hsu, which put the score out of reach for the Gaels.
The third set brought more of the same, with the Thunderbirds again taking an early lead and not letting Queen's get out in front on them at any point. A couple of Gingera kills followed by an ace from the star outside hitter put the 'Birds up 17-12, their biggest lead of the set to that point.
Once again the T-Birds' firepower proved too much for the Gaels to handle, as the blue and gold hit a sparkling .417 as a team with 12 kills and just two attack errors in the frame. Three late service errors didn't help the No. 2 seed either, as they suffered a 25-17 defeat in the third, the biggest scoring margin in any set in the match.
Aiming to close out the quarterfinal in four sets, the trio of Greves, Borowski and Emery teamed up in different combinations on three straight blocks to put UBC up 9-5. Kills from Pratt and Emery put the T-Birds up by five soon after, and while both teams became somewhat bogged down offensively as the set went along, the 'Birds again were able to play from the front.
The Gaels got the deficit down to as little as two points on a couple of occasions, but that's as close as they would get, and when Pratt landed another kill to make it 24-19, the Thunderbirds only needed two of their six available match points to claim the victory.
UBC now advances to the championship semifinals, and are guaranteed to play for a medal on Sunday. What colour medal that is depends on the result of their match tomorrow, as they have the chance for revenge against the Manitoba Bisons – the team that defeated them at the Canada West Final Four last weekend.
The Bisons are coming off an emphatic 3-0 victory over RSEQ champs Laval in their own quarterfinal. Saturday's semi will be an exciting battle between two teams playing great volleyball at the right time, with the Thunderbirds and Bisons a combined 28-3 since the beginning of January.
That matchup will begin at 3:00 p.m. (PT) tomorrow, and is available to watch across all CBC digital platforms.
