Kelowna-area grads part of UBC national volleyball championship

With files from USports and UBC Athletics

A pair of Central Okanagan volleyball players were a part of a historic USports championship victory by the University of B.C. Thunderbirds on Sunday.

Fynn McCarthy, a graduate of George Elliot Secondary School in Lake Country and Jeremy Bednar of West Kelowna and a former Mt. Boucherie student, helped the T-birds to their first national university men’s volleyball title in 35 years. Both rookies — McCarthy, a middle player, and Bedar, a libero — were also members of the Kelowna Volleyball Club.

UBC, seeded No. 3 going into the Canadian championship at McMaster University in Hamilton, swept away the No. 1-seed Trinity Western Spartans’ chance at a third straight USports national title by upsetting the Langley-based team 25-22, 25-18, 27-25 in the title match.

McCarthy, in his first season with the T-Birds, led the team with nine kills and added a pair of ace serves and a block to earn player-of-the-game honours.

It’s the Thunderbirds fourth overall men’s volleyball championship and first since 1983. UBC also won crowns in 1967 and 1976.

“It’s awesome to win one for the program.” said UBC setter and tournament most valuable player Byron Keturakis. “We have so much support from our teammates, our coaching staff, our trainers, parents and alumni, and it’s really cool to be a part of that bigger family.”

Keturakis thought earning the title against a team of the Spartans’ quality was an extra cherry on top of the championship crown.

“Trinity Western is an awesome team, and part of what makes this so special is that they’re continually in this national final. Their being so good is what makes this so special.”

Keturakis was a big reason the UBC offence hit its stride today, as he cycled the ball to balance the Thunderbirds’ attack. He tallied 31 assists in spurring the offence, while McCarthy, a member of Canada’s U21 national team, benefited to lead the team with 11.5 points in the championship win.

Irvan Brar posted 11 points while Jordan Deshane and Keith West were also key contributors registering 10.5 and 10 points respectively. West tied with McCarthy for the team high nine kills.

🏐 MVB | @ubcmvb completes 3-0 sweep of @SpartanMVB to win 🥇 @USPORTSca national championship final. 1st championship in 35 years!! 🍾#ChampSZN #GoBirdsGo pic.twitter.com/Sa994xkfl3

— UBC Thunderbirds (@ubctbirds) March 18, 2018

“They did what they do best and they served with a ton of pressure,” said Josephson. “I thought our receivers did a good enough job of not getting aced, but the problem was that we weren’t really in a position where we could run our middle or pipe offence, which is what we build around.

Brar, who was named to the tournament all-star Team, was elated after being told UBC had just erased a 35-year drought. “It’s sweet. We were in a dry spell for quite a long time, and it’s nice to see the progress from last year and into this year’s team, with the addition of a few pieces like Keith West and Fynn McCarthy, and it all came together pretty sweetly.” said Brar. “Coach K is killing it for us and we’re so happy to get a national championship for him and for us.”

UBC was one of the two teams to hand Trinity Western a defeat in the regular season, the other being Brandon. The Thunderbirds beat the Spartans 3-1 back on Feb. 9

The Thunderbirds’ last appearance in the men’s volleyball final came in 1984, one year after they claimed the national title. UBC’s run to the championship included a straight set victory over the University of New Brunswick in the quarter-final match, and a 3-1 semifinal victory over Alberta.

In the semifinal match, McCarthy recorded eight kills, an ace and a block while the 6-foot-6 middle had five kills in the quarter-final match against UNB.

Prior to Sunday’'s 3-0 defeat, Trinity Western had not been swept by a team in 50 matches. That loss came back on Jan. 7, 2017 vs Saskatchewan in Langley.

UBC head coach Kerry MacDonald expected a fight from the Spartans in set three, as rare as one-sided results are for Josephson’s program. “I knew after we won that second set fairly comfortably what we were on the brink of,” said MacDonald. “The message to the guys was, ‘let’s not expect that to happen again.’”

“We had two fairly comfortable sets there, and lopsided wins against Trinity Western don’t happen too often. We knew that we were in for a battle in that third, but we battled back and were able to take it.

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