WINDSOR, Ont. – For the first set of the T-Birds' U SPORTS Semifinal against the Bisons, things looked a little similar to their match last weekend at the Canada West Final Four.
Then, all of a sudden, they couldn't have been more different.
After going down 1-0, the blue and gold turned around and dominated the Bisons for much of the next three sets (15-25, 25-10, 25-22, 25-16), exacting some measure of revenge and booking their spot in the national gold medal match for the first time since they won it all in 2018.
Amongst a number of great Thunderbird performances,
Dawson Pratt was named UBC's Player of the Game after he put up 14 kills, eight digs, two blocks and a season-high four aces.
Elsewhere,
Reeve Gingera had 14 kills and 11 digs,
Mason Greves 42 assists and nine digs, while
Logan Greves was all over the court as he collected a career-high 22 digs – the most of any Thunderbird in a single playoff match since at least 2009.
Owen Weekes recorded 14 kills and 10 digs in the loss for Manitoba, while Karil Dadash Adeh was his team's Player of the Game with nine kills, 13 digs and four blocks.
It was the Bisons who came out of the gates with the momentum, jumping out to an early 10-3 lead thanks to some strong serving and blocking at the net. While the T-Birds got their feet under them more as the set went along, they were unable to put a massive run of their own together.
The lead hovered around five to eight points for the vast majority of the set, with the two teams trading points back and forth until a late Manitoba burst made it 25-15 at the end. The serving remained a big difference between the two sides in the opening frame, with the Bisons recording four aces and three service errors, compared to UBC's zero aces and six errors.
Everything changed in the second, as a Gingera set-opening kill followed by a couple of Manitoba errors put the T-Birds out in front. The change in momentum was exemplified by a fantastic hustle play by Pratt early on in the frame, as he sprinted across the court and nearly fell into the bleachers to save a ball which
Kieran Robinson-Dunning then forced over the net and onto the Manitoba side to make it 6-3 UBC.
The 'Birds then proceeded to blow the set wide open with an 8-2 run midway through, with kills from Robinson-Dunning and Greves capping the Thunderbird deluge. The Bisons waved the white flag from that point on, as UBC scored another six in a row to end the set at 25-10, putting themselves squarely back into the match.
The third was the one set that was hotly contested all the way to the finish, as the Thunderbirds came from behind multiple times over the course of the frame. That included an 18-15 deficit late on, from which Gingera and
Gavin Moes responded by landing some big kills to keep their team in it.
With the score tied at 21-21, Gingera won a critical joust at the net to force the Bisons' defence into scramble mode, forcing a Weekes service error on their ensuing attack. The 'Birds then proceeded to score three of the next four points to take the set, with a Pratt kill ending it off.
Pratt's great night continued as he fired a thunderous ace to put the Thunderbirds up 8-4 early in the fourth, sending Manitoba libero Josh Jehle crashing backwards to the floor from its force. That came in the middle of a run of seven unanswered UBC points, a drought that Bisons could not recover from.
The Thunderbirds never led by fewer than five points the rest of the way, as they completed their comeback in style with a 25-16 fourth set to send them to the gold medal match of the 2026 U SPORTS Men's Volleyball Championship.
Set to play at 3:00 p.m. (PT) on Sunday, the T-Birds will face the tournament's No. 1 seed, the Trinity Western Spartans, in the final. Perhaps fittingly, it's a rematch of the 2018 national championship match, the fourth – and most recent – U SPORTS title in UBC's program history.
