UBCO Heat Women Bringing Home National Bronze

The UBC Okanagan Heat suffered a loss to the eventual CIS gold-medal winners, but Kelowna-based team claimed the bronze on Sunday at the national women’s volleyball championship tournament in Winnipeg.

In only their fifth season competing at the university level, the Heat earned a medal in their first trip to the CIS women’s volleyball championship tournament, defeating the UBC Thunderbirds 3-0 (25-18, 25-18, 25-19) in Sunday’s bronze-medal match.

A day earlier, the Heat dropped a 3-1 decision to the No. 2-ranked Toronto Varsity Blues, who on Sunday downed the defending-champion and No. 1-seed Trinity Western Spartans 3-0 (25-21, 25-18, 25-12) for the national championship.

For Heat head coach Steve Manuel, the bronze medal validated all of the work the program has put into being competitive at the CIS level.

“As a program this is just a very satisfying moment,” Manuel said. “There were a lot of naysayers throughout the years (saying) we’re just another college team coming into CIS. We had lots of negative things said (such as) ‘You’re just going to water things down, you’re not going to be able to compete with the big dogs.’

“We thought we could, but we never dreamt we would be able to, in this short of time, get to where we are.”

The Heat were ranked first in the CIS this season before losing to the Trinity Western Spartans in the Canada West conference final and came into nationals as the third seed. They suffered a disappointing loss to the Toronto Varsity Blues in Saturday’s semifinals, and fourth-year player Kaitlynn Given said UBCO was determined to come back and win a medal on Sunday.

“I think that shows a lot of character by our team is our ability to just refocus,” said Given, who led the Heat with 10 kills in the bronze-medal match. “I’m not going to lie, it was hard last night. We all needed our time, and we took it, but this morning we woke up, were determined and were refocused for this game.”

This match capped a ground breaking career to a final-season group that took UBC Okanagan from CIS newcomers to CIS national medalists. This group includes: Outside hitters Katelyn DeJong and Brianna Beamish, setter Chandler Proch, libero Kailin Jones, and middles Katy Klomps and Katie Wuttunee.

The Thunderbirds, seeded fifth for the championship, challenged the Heat and took early leads in each set, but each time UBCO recovered to win handily.

The Thunderbirds have been to the national championship 21 times in the last 22 years, winning the title six years in a row from 2008 to 2013, and head coach Doug Reimer of Kelowna said the bronze-medal match can be difficult for players.

“Bronze-medal games are weird beasts,” Reimer said. “I won’t spend too long harping on that match. My consideration and my reflection will be actually on last night (when UBC lost to the Trinity Western Spartans in the semifinals).

“It’s a tough turnaround time, the same thing for both teams. I thought for a while our players played with quite a bit of energy and brought a lot, but I think UBCO is a very solid team. They showed why they were ranked No. 1 in the country for a lot of the year.”

Meanwhile, the Toronto Varsity Blues made a lot of history with their victory in the final of the CIS women’s volleyball championship on Sunday against the Trinity Western Spartans.

“This is the best feeling in the world,” said Caleigh Cruickshank, the MVP of the tournament, who had eight kills in the final and 40 over the course of her three matches. “I’m over the moon. It still hasn’t even 100 per cent sunk in yet. It feels like a dream.”

The title capped a remarkable season for the Varsity Blues, who went 25-0 over the course of the OUA regular season, playoffs and nationals. They’re the first team to go undefeated through conference play and the CIS championship since the UBC Thunderbirds in 2010.

Including non-conference play, Toronto had a 33-4 record versus CIS teams.

Toronto also ended a long drought for Ontario at the event. It was the first women’s volleyball championship by an OUA team in 40 years, and the Varsity Blues became only the second Ontario team to win the title, joining the Western Mustangs, who won in 1972, 1975 and 1976.