LANGLEY, B.C. – Taking the court for the final time in their 2025-26 campaign, the UBC Thunderbirds came out on top in a tough battle against the Saint Mary's Huskies, defeating the AUS champions in five sets (14-25, 25-21, 30-28, 22-25, 15-12) to earn a fifth-place finish at the 2026 U SPORTS Women's Volleyball Championship.
"I give every team we played a lot of credit," said UBC head coach
Doug Reimer following the match. "They've shown why they earned their way to a national championship, because they can do things that get you there.
"We've made a lot of growth, especially since Christmas…I'm just really proud of our team for that, and I think we had a lot of our players show they can play at a high level."
Playing in her final career match as a Thunderbird,
Lucy Borowski stuffed the stat sheet with 21 kills, 13 digs, three blocks and a season-high six aces.
Ella Ungemach had a massive performance off the bench as she tripled her previous career-high in kills with 15, while
Mackenzie Campbell had 24 assists, seven digs and two blocks.
Emilia Mikanovich had 18 kills and 12 digs for the Huskies, while Alena Piatukhova was a force over the middle with 12 kills, seven digs and 10 blocks.
Borowski was the focal point early, scoring all of UBC's first four points through kills. But the Huskies were the team who jumped out in front, with a Piatukhova ace putting the AUS champs in front 11-4.
SMU led by as many as 12 points in a dominant opening set showing, jumping out to an early 1-0 advantage just as they'd done in their previous match against Thompson Rivers. A Jordin Parsons kill over the middle was the final blow to make it 25-14, giving the T-Birds some work to do in the second.
They certainly were ready for that work, as Borowski led an early charge that put her team up 5-0 following a pair of aces in quick succession. The Vancouver native was dominant in the set overall, tallying a total of five kills, three aces and two blocks in the second and leading her team to a big lead.
Another T-Birds ace – this one from
Issy Robertshaw – made it 14-6 and forced a second Huskies timeout. Saint Mary's kept fighting, and eventually cut the deficit to just two at 21-19, but another Borowski kill followed by a Campbell ace helped quell that SMU surge and gave the Thunderbirds the breathing room they needed to close out the set.
The third began much more back-and-forth than the first two sets, with a solo block over the middle from Piatukhova followed by one from
Jocelyn Lenarcic and
Elizabeth Lee to tie the score at 6-6.
The Huskies were the first team to begin to stretch out a lead as the set went along, with kills from Esther Wildeboer and Syree Tucker putting them up 19-13. Not wanting to go down in set count once again, the T-Birds proceeded to score the next four points in a row to get themselves right back into things.
While the Huskies earned set point opportunity with a Mikanovich kill at 24-23, Borowski tied things back up with a kill of her own to force some extra volleyball. After earning a series of set points, Ungemach was the one who finally ended it in favour of UBC at 30-28 with a nice cross-court kill.
The two sides were again difficult to separate in the fourth. Opening up a 14-11 lead thanks to yet another Piatukhova rejection, the Thunderbirds responded by scoring four of the next five to tie up the score once again.
Unfortunately for the T-Birds, some late service errors helped doom them in the set, as SMU took it 25-22 to force a fifth and final frame.
Playing in just their second five-setter in the last two months, the Thunderbirds struck first with a kill from
Emelie Silovs. A series of powerful swings from Ungemach and Lee staked the T-Birds out to a 7-4 advantage, but the Huskies refused to go away easily as Mikanovich tied the score at 10-10 with a kill off a free ball.
Up 14-12, the T-Birds had two match point opportunities to work with. They only needed one, as Lee landed a big kill after a scrappy rally to earn fifth place at the tournament for the Thunderbirds.
While they weren't able to make a run to the medal rounds, this weekend's action was still a success in terms of earning some wins and gaining some valuable experience for players getting their first crack at major minutes on the national stage.
With everyone on the roster except Borowski and
Akash Grewal able to return next season, the Thunderbirds will aim for this playoff run to be instructive for the summer and next season to come.
"We need a little time to decompress, but in postseason meetings our players need to go, 'here's my individual improvement plan', and that includes remembering some of these challenging times," added Reimer. "We've got building blocks, but we know that we have to get better."
