Women’s volleyball: Five-peat?

It’s quarterfinal weekend in Canada West women’s volleyball. Unsurprisingly, the UBC Thunderbirds are not playing.

The No. 1 ranked team in the country finished first in the Canada West with an 18-2 record and are automatically in the Canada West final four, which they will be hosting at War Memorial Gym next weekend.

For the past four years, UBC has been an unstoppable force in women’s volleyball. They’ve won three consecutive Canada West titles (2009-2011) and have won an unbelievable four consecutive national titles (2008-2011). They’ve only lost five games in the last three years.

“What we have to do is stay excited about the opportunity to win, and not try to avoid losing,” said UBC head coach Doug Reimer. “Sometimes, whether it is because you have a good streak going or you are in first place, you have to have the mentality that you have to compete hard and not wait for [a team] to go away because at this point of the year every team is hungry.”

The only two teams the ‘Birds lost to this season were Trinity Western and Alberta. Both of those losses came in the first game of a two-game series. While UBC would beat each of those teams the following night, they won’t be afforded that opportunity in the playoffs. To make matters more intriguing, last season UBC ousted Trinity to win the Canada West, and the T-Birds knocked out Alberta in the CIS semifinals.

“It would be natural for us to think about teams like Trinity and Alberta [as rivals] because they have traditionally stood in the way of success and have always come to play us really well,” said Reimer. “But we have to be really respectful of the fact that there are a lot of teams this year that do well on a week by week basis.”

Despite their perennial success, Reimer isn’t worried about his team becoming complacent. “The team knows there is no margin for error, and they have a lot of respect for the opponents we are going to face.”

The final four begins next weekend, and while it isn’t clear which teams UBC will face on their road to a five-peat, one thing is certain: every step of the way, they’ll have a giant target on their back.

Men’s volleyball: Fighting the odds

They haven’t been to nationals since the 2007/08 season, they are entering the postseason on a three-game losing streak, and six teams in the CIS top ten play in their conference.

For the UBC men’s volleyball team, none of that matters.

“It’s a tough league, but that’s what you want it to be,” said UBC head coach Richard Schick. “You want it to be a grind week in and week out, and that’s what we have and that’s what makes our league so good. That’s what makes our players and our team so good.”

UBC finished the season with a 10-10 record, and sixth in the Canada West. They are the No. 7 ranked team in the country and on Thursday they will begin a best-of-three quarterfinal series against No. 4 ranked Alberta. The winner advances to the Canada West final four and automatically qualifies for nationals.

While Alberta has home court advantage and is the unquestioned favourite, UBC has proved they can’t be taken lightly. Earlier in the season, the Thunderbirds split a two-game series with Alberta, losing 3-1 in the first game, but handily sweeping Alberta 3-0 in the second match.

“We feel like we know [Alberta] pretty well and we’ve had some success against them, but at the same time, when we played them in December it was the midpoint of our season and this is it for a lot of players,” said Schick.

Seven T-Birds are in their fifth and final year. None of them have been to nationals since their freshman season, adding an extra layer of importance to this weekend’s series.

When the ‘Birds and Alberta square off on Thursday night, Schick said the key to success will be not losing sight of their identity: a system-oriented team that has excelled all year through grit and tough defence. “[Our blocking and defence] will have to be bang on. We are going to have be extremely hungry on defence to get our share of balls and transition. And we will have to stay aggressive when we do get the opportunity to kill the ball, and ultimately, that is what it will come down to.

“It doesn’t get any better than an opportunity to play for a chance to get to nationals.”

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