LANGLEY, B.C. – In a rematch of the Canada West Semifinals just seven days ago, the Thunderbirds travelled to the Langley Events Centre to take on the Spartans in their own gym in the opening round of the 2026 U SPORTS Women's Volleyball Championship.
In front of packed, boisterous crowd featuring plenty of UBC supporters alongside the Spartans faithful, it was the home team that prevailed in straight sets (33-31, 26-24, 25-22).
Despite racking up an incredible 51 kills, the T-Birds were undone in the extremely close trio of sets by a few too many errors, including from the service line where they had 13 compared to just six for the Spartans.
"Sometimes you live and die by serving, and we didn't sustain runs, and that was on our serving," said UBC head coach
Doug Reimer. "I thought lots of other aspects of our game were very good…but they out-served us, and we made too many small errors in situations too often."
Issy Robertshaw was named Player of the Game for the Thunderbirds as she tallied 43 assists, two kills, four digs and two aces.
Lucy Borowski put up 17 kills and 15 blocks while
Jocelyn Lenarcic recorded a career-high eight kills on a .533 hitting percentage.
Sienna Driedger had a fantastic performance from TWU, with a career-best 15 kills on a .609 hitting percentage, along with eight digs. Kaylee Plouffe had eight kills, eight digs and three aces.
"Obviously Trinity is a great team and they deserve a lot of credit," added Reimer. "I don't think it's an easy match for either team to play because both are good, and I think they really rose to the occasion and got some great performances.
"On our side I thought we ran some good offence – I thought Lucy played really well, I thought Issy set well and our middles were ready to rock and roll…it's a group that has had a lot of growth this year from a lot of people. I'm obviously disappointed for us that we don't get a chance to go to the semis, but take nothing away from Trinity, they earned that win."
The home team came out swinging to begin the match, with a pair of kills from Plouffe and London Krahn firing their team out to a 4-0 lead and forcing an early UBC timeout.
The T-Birds were able to find their footage following the stoppage, with a Borowski kill and a block from the duo of
Leonora Barbulovich-Nad and
Kylee Glanville giving them some positive momentum.
Glanville tied up the score for the first time at 13-13, when she spotted an open back corner and simply lofted the ball over the head of the Spartans' defence. But consecutive Plouffe aces somewhat dampened that UBC momentum, with the hosts not letting the T-Birds jump out in front.
Down 24-22 late, UBC proceeded to stave off two set points with kills from
Elizabeth Lee and Lenarcic, pushing the opening frame into some extra volleyball. But in the end, it was the T-Birds who were left to rue their missed opportunities, as they were unable to convert on five straight set points before Maryn Boldon finally ended it with a kill off the hands of the block to make it 33-31.
Determined to even up the match, it was the Thunderbirds who jumped out in front to begin the second thanks to a Robertshaw ace and a series of kills from Barbulovich-Nad, Borowski and Lenarcic.
The Spartans didn't let them stay too far out in front for long, however, and play soon settled back into the familiar routine of constant slim leads and momentum changes. There was a total of nine ties in rapid succession before a block from Isabella Stothart and Tayana Dmitruk put Trinity Western up 23-21 and forced a UBC timeout.
Finding themselves down 24-22 for the second set in a row, the T-Birds again rallied and Glanville landed a clutch ace to push the two teams past the 25-point barrier once more. But again, it was the Spartans who came up with the final points as Stothart put her team up 2-0 in set count with a kill thanks to an inviting free ball.
With their backs up against the wall, the T-Birds knew they had to come out strong in the third. A Glanville kill down the sideline made it 5-1 for the road team early on, but again that advantage was to be short-lived as the Spartans fired their way right back into things.
The critical push came when the score read 15-13 in favour of UBC, as from there Driedger and Plouffe powered a run of seven unanswered points that put their team up by five. While the T-Birds continued to battle hard, and fought off two more set points once the Spartans reached 24, Boldon fired the final blow to take a 25-22 final set win.
Following their defeat, the Thunderbirds will be right back in action at 2:00 p.m. (PT) on Saturday, taking on either the Alberta Pandas or Montreal Carabins inside the Langley Events Centre.
