The drive for five has arrived for Kyla Richey and the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds.
The Roberts Creek native capped off her stellar university career Sunday afternoon at McMaster University in Hamilton, helping to lead UBC to its fifth straight national women's volleyball championship with a thrilling five set win over the Alberta Pandas (25-19, 15-25, 19-25, 25-20, 15-12).
UBC trailed two sets to one, but battled back for a five-point win in set four to send the match to its nail-biting conclusion.
The T-Birds jumped out to a 4-0 lead in set five, but saw Alberta battle back with three straight points. UBC used veteran poise and leadership from Richey, fellow fifth-year senior Rayel Quiring and second-year player Lisa Barclay, who led the T-Birds with a team high 12 kills, 19 points and five aces, to close out the match. Barclay was named the tournament MVP.
Coast Reporter reached Richey while the team was stuck in the Calgary airport Monday morning waiting for a flight back to Vancouver.
"It's tradition," Richey said with a laugh. "Every time we have been to nationals, we either have a flight cancelled or delayed because of weather, so why break with tradition now."
Richey said it still hasn't quite sunk in that her career at UBC is over and that the team has just won five straight championships.
"Everyone was talking about the drive for five, but I was just trying to focus on this one game. For me it was the drive for one and not thinking about what happened in the past or the future," she said. "I still can't comprehend what we did."
Richey was neutralized effectively by the Pandas in the final and she admitted she had a tough time doing much of anything in the first three sets.
"Alberta was amazing. I don't think a team has played us that well, honestly in my whole career," Richey said. "Personally, I knew that being a fifth year player, I needed to keep raising my game. And even though I was not the go-to scorer, I needed to contribute in different ways and keep the team in it.
"We kept fighting, we kept focused, and we just kept telling ourselves that eventually it will turn."
Richey said during the break between the third and fourth sets the team regrouped.
"I don't know if you can call that a turning point, but coming out onto the court for set four, a switch just kind of turned on in our heads and we realized that if we lost this set, it was over," she said. "The first few points of that set, you could tell we were into the match and we just started to fight."
Sunday's win marked UBC's 14th win in a row at the national tourney since their loss to Laval in the 2006 final. The T-Birds have reached the title match in each of their six CIS championship appearances over the past seven years.
Sunday's championship marked the university's ninth national title in women's volleyball. The victory also brings the T-Birds to within one of the all-time mark of six titles in a row, a record shared by the Pandas and Winnipeg.
Richey and Quiring are the first athletes, other than swimmers, to win five CIS titles at UBC.
"The way we had to hang in there today had a real euphoric feeling, very similar to our first championship with this group," said head coach Doug Reimer. "Lots of people picked it up. I thought Kyla raised her game when she had to, as did Rayel and many others. I was confident we were ready to play, but Alberta started better than we did.
"But championships are won by hanging in there and won in the latter part of the match, and I was just so proud of the way we hung in and dug down deep in the end."
UBC started the tournament last Friday with a 3-0 win over Queens (25-19, 25-19, 25-16). Richey led all scorers with 11.5 points on eight kills, two aces and three block assists. She also had eight digs en route to UBC game-MVP honours.
On Saturday, UBC knocked off the Montreal Carabins in four sets in the semifinals (25-15, 20-25, 25-19, 25-22). Richey led UBC with 13 kills and 17.5 points.
Montreal reached the semis by beating Trinity Western in Friday's quarterfinal, while Alberta knocked off host McMaster 3-0. Alberta then followed that up with a 3-0 win over McGill in Saturday's second semifinal.
Olympic qualifying for this summer's London Games starts in early May, and Richey hopes she will be able to write her final exams early and be able to join the team for pre-training in late April. After qualifications and hopefully a spot at the Olympics, Richey will turn the page to the next chapter in her life.
"I've started talking to an agent, and my goal is to sign a pro career and go play in Europe. It's very scary, but also very exciting," she said. "To think that my UBC career is done and that I won't be here come September is very weird.
"We were joking with Doug on Sunday saying after we won the first championship we would get him four more. He didn't believe us then, and I don't think he believes us now because this never happens, it's impossible. We're in a select group. I just remember all the training, training with my mom back at elementary school and with all the girls at Elphinstone Secondary. All the training in Winnipeg with the national team and going home so sore, you could hardly walk. All the blood, sweat and tears - it was all worth it."
