Is a four-peat in the cards? That's a question that will be answered this weekend in Laval, Que., as the UBC Thunderbirds are in search of their fourth straight national women's volleyball championship.
Roberts Creek's Kyla Richey and her UBC teammates booked their spot in Laval with a hard-fought five-set win over Trinity Western to claim their third straight Canada West conference title last Saturday night at War Memorial Gym.
UBC came back from being down two sets to one to win in dramatic fashion 17-15 in the deciding set. Richey finished with a match-high 19 kills.
On Friday night, UBC beat Manitoba 3-0 in the Canada West final four semifinal with Richey adding 14 kills. In Saturday's consolation final, Alberta beat Manitoba. Trinity Western and Alberta will also represent the Canada West at the nationals.
"I personally was really excited with the way we played last weekend," said Richey. "Coming back from the national team, I didn't think we had been pushed very hard and we were still finding ourselves, so to get such a tough match was great. It was a hard challenge. Trinity Western is a really good team and played us very tough. We have built up a good rivalry with them, and there was a lot of emotion. We're up to always beat each other."
UBC plays its quarterfinal match today (Friday) against number eight-seeded Sherbrooke, with Alberta facing Montreal, Trinity Western facing Western Ontario and Laval facing UNB in the other quarterfinal matches.
Should UBC advance, they will play the winner of the Alberta/Montreal match in the semifinals Saturday night. The championship final is Sunday evening.
"We've had lots of talks about the goals and steps to get back to nationals and now we're here again, which is just amazing," Richey said. "We've been focusing on one match at a time. Sherbrooke will be tough. The goal is certainly to win another championship. That would be outstanding."
