VANCOUVER – It's been 40 years since the U SPORTS No.1-ranked UBC Thunderbirds (19-1, 2-0) have won the Canada West Championship, but this year's stacked team is primed and ready to break that streak.
The T-Birds are hosting the Canada West Final Four for the first time ever, trying to win the eighth conference championship in program history and first since 1986. The top-seed T-Birds open the mini tournament by hosting the U SPORTS No.8-ranked Manitoba Bisons at 5:30 p.m. (PT) on Friday at War Memorial Gym.
Fans are encouraged to come to War Gym early to take part in the Final Four Kickoff Party in the lobby, starting at 4:30 p.m. (PT). There will be free popcorn, free t-shirts and a chance to win a Lululemon Prize Pack!
UBC and Manitoba will begin the four-game tournament, followed by the other semifinal between No.2-seed Trinity Western (17-3, 2-0) and No.3-seed Alberta (15-5, 2-1) at 7:30 p.m. (PT). The two teams that lose their semifinals will still have plenty to play for, as the winner of the Bronze Medal Match at 4:00 p.m. (PT) on Saturday will still advance to the U SPORTS Championship, along with the two finalists. The Canada West Gold Medal match is set for 6:00 p.m. (PT).
The Thunderbirds earned the right to host the Final Four by finishing atop the Canada West regular season standings before defeating the No.9-seed Calgary Dinos 3-0 & 3-1 in a two-game sweep of their quarter-final series last weekend. While the 'Birds only dropped one set over the two matches, it was far from a comfortable victory. The Dinos wildly exceeded what one might have expected based on their seeding to push the blue and gold into extra points in three of the seven sets over the series and scored at least 20 points in five of those frames.
"I would say, for us, the reverberating thought throughout my mind after the weekend was 'those are exactly the reps that you need in playoffs'," reflected UBC head coach
Mike Hawkins, newly minted Canada West Coach of the Year.
"I thought that throughout the course of both matches, particularly Friday, guys just found a way to put their head down and grind through what was a very difficult match. You need to be able to persevere through really difficult moments, particularly when you don't feel like you are in rhythm. I thought that the comeback in the third set on Thursday, and for the majority of the match on Friday, that's sort of what it was. But also, kudos to Calgary, I thought that they did an incredible job."
The 'Birds are back in the Final Four for the second straight season, the only two years the conference has utilized the format in this era. Last year, the 'Birds failed to advance to the U SPORTS Championships out of the event, but much has changed this season.
With the core of the roster all returning and further coalescing throughout the campaign, Canada West Player of the Year
Mason Greves helped build the 'Birds' offence to be the best in the country, posting by far the most efficient attack in Canada. Pair that with perhaps the strongest home court advantage too, and there is plenty of reason for optimism about their chances to advance. UBC needs to win just one match over the course of weekend to reach the national championships, and has not lost a regular season or playoff game at home in over two calendar years, a streak of 28 matches and counting.
"I think the familiarity and comfortable of playing this Final Four at War Gym cannot be overstated," said Hawkins, emphatically.
"The fact that we don't have to travel removes one difficult factor that you need to overcome. We also have a lot of confidence playing in our gym, we've been successful here for quite some time.
"The consecutive win streak is cool, but for the most part it's just the fact that the guys really like playing in this gym and I feel like we do a really good job getting a great crowd out that's super supportive. Plus, it always helps to sleep in your own bed."
The Manitoba Bisons have already proven that sleeping in a shared hotel room won't stop them from picking up post-season victories, as they are the only team to reach the Final Four by winning their quarter-final series on the road. The No.5-seed Bisons upset No.4-seed UBC Okanagan in Kelowna last weekend to reach the semis, prevailing in a grueling three-game series in which they played 14 of a possible 15 sets.
Head-to-head, the T-Birds took down the Bisons twice at Manitoba in the fall, winning both matches 3-1. However, the herd has been scorching hot since the calendar flipped to 2026. The Bisons did not lose a game in the second half of the regular season, riding an 11-match winning streak into their five-set game two defeat to UBCO.
While Manitoba profiles as a well-rounded team without a standout statistical attribute, they do feature several standout individual players. Middle Jordan Heppner led the conference in hitting percentage at .455, fellow middle Jonah Dueck was best in Canada West in blocks at 1.29 per set (with Heppner sitting third), and right side Karil Dadash Adeh now owns the best aces per set ratio in Canada West history at 0.56.
"They're a great team and they've been on a heater this second semester, I think they found themselves a little bit as a group," analyzed Hawkins. "We know that they've got a lot of firepower from the baseline, but we're a very formidable defensive team and do a good job of limiting aces. It's going to be an interesting contrast of styles.
"I think it's going to be important to assert our style of play. I'm confident in our ability to move the ball around and be efficient offensively. While Jordan Heppner did technically lead the conference with a .455 hitting percentage,
Kieran Robinson-Dunning hit .517 for us and
Alex Emery hit .510. As I joked with the team, it's hard to give our middles volume when they're so efficient and when the rest of our team is so efficient. They're just not on the court long enough to crack that leaderboard."
The three teams that earn a win over the course of the weekend will all be travelling to Windsor next week for the eight-team U SPORTS Championship, hosted at the Toldo Lancer Centre from Friday, March 13
th to Sunday, March 15
th.
The Thunderbirds last qualified for the national championships in 2024, taking home the bronze medal. UBC's last national championship win was in 2018, the fourth in program history.
Tickets to the Final Four can be purchased
here. For those who can't attend, all four games will be available to stream, live or on demand, on
Canada West TV.
