Here’s our look at four of the top sporting moments for local university teams over the weekend:
1. Next stop Calgary.
The UBC Thunderbirds men’s basketball team has already assured itself of a berth as the host team when the CIS Final 8 tournament begins March 17.
Yet the ‘Birds want to prove that they would have earned their place in the field regardless.
UBC’s impressive home-court sweep of the Lethbridge Pronghorns on Thursday (81-57) and Friday (85-57), which came by an average of margin of 26 points, propels the ‘Birds into the Canada West Final Four tourament beginning Friday. The top two finishers as well as UBC move on to the national tournament.
UBC will play Kamloops’ Thompson Rivers WolfPack in the opener Friday at the University of Calgary.
If TRU wins it will earn a berth to nationals. If UBC wins, it would have accomplished its preseason goal of earning a nationals berth based solely by it on-court play.
Additionally, TRU can still get to the Final 8 if they lose to UBC, but they would have to beat the loser of Friday’s other first-round match-up between the host Dinos and Manitoba Bisons in Saturday’s bronze medal game.
2. Defending CIS national women’s volleyball champion Trinity Western is headed back to the big dance, and for the second straight year, they are doing it as conference champions.
The No. 4-ranked Spartans went the distance before pulling a 3-2 (25-19, 18-25, 25-18, 23-25, 15-10) victory in Saturday’s final over host and No. 1-ranked UBC Okanagan.
Elizabeth Wendel and Sophie Carpentier led the Spartans with 20 and 15 kills respectively.
Both teams advance to the CIS nationals beginning Friday in Brandon.
Joining them will be the UBC Thunderbirds, who claimed the conference’s third-and-final berth by virtue of its 3-0 (25-22, 25-21, 25-15) sweep of Alberta. Danielle Brisebois led the ‘Birds with 15 kills.
3. The TWU men’s volleyball team entered this past weekend’s Canada West Final Four conference championships as the lowest seed.
Yet after dispatching the Saskatchewa Huskies 3-1 (25-22, 25-19, 35-37, 25-23) on Saturday in Edmonton, they’re headed to this week’s CIS national tournament beginning Thursday at Hamilton’s McMaster University as conference champs.
The last time that happened was in 2012 and all the Spartans did that season was win the national title.
4. The Simon Fraser Clan (4-3) softball team only got one extra-base hit Sunday in the opener of its home double-header against Montana State-Billings, but it was a two-run homer from Taylor Gillis that helped power the locals to a 6-2 win and their fourth straight victory in the NCAA Div. 2’s Great Northwest Athletic Conference after an 0-3 start. Alia Stachoski (7-3) went seven-plus innings and fanned seven to get the win.
