UBCO women’s volleyball squad narrowly upsets nationally ranked UBC

While both UBCO Heat volleyball squads fell against the UBC Thunderbirds this past weekend, the Heat did not go down easily against their sister school rivals in their return from the holiday break.

The UBCO women’s team came the closest to handing the Thunderbirds a loss after forcing a fifth set against their foes on Saturday.

Before Saturday’s match, the Thunderbirds had won 33 of their 35 sets played in the 2024-25 season, including a three-set sweep against the Heat on Friday night.

The Thunderbirds took the first set before the Heat bounced back and won the next two sets, getting one set away from an upset.

UBC then rebounded and proved why they are one of the best teams in the country as they won the next two frames.

"The rust of the long break with no training or competition really showed on Friday night,” said UBCO head coach Steve Manuel.

“But they dug deep and battled tonight (Saturday), we just came up a bit short in the end. The positive is that we showed we can compete toe-to-toe with the top teams in the country and we will build on that over these next few weeks."

Olivia Boulding led the Heat with 17.5 points and Kylan Finseth posted her second-most assists in a game with 37.

The UBCO men’s squad lost both of their matches against the Thunderbirds in four sets.

In the Heat’s second match against the Thunderbirds, Sam Jablonski set a new career-high with 12 kills en route to a team-high 13 points.

Zach Van Geel matched his season-best total of 41 assists and Seba Manuel added 11.5 points and 10 digs.

Both Heat teams will remain at home this upcoming weekend as they host the University of Manitoba Bisons.