We sit down with Kyla Richey, outside hitter for the Canadian National Volleyball Team. Kyla talks about her five CIS Championships with UBC, playing pro and the women's national team.
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We are joined by Austin Hinchey, captain of the Canadian sitting volleyball team and setter for the UBC Thunderbirds. Photo: ubyssey.ca
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Former UBC Thunderbird Shanice Marcelle will compete in The CEV Cup semi finals tomorrow with her club team Dresdener SC.
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Doug Reimer's UBC Thunderbirds have won six straight CIS Championships, yet in the eyes of the mainstream media, he's no genius Photo: UBCEditors notes: This is a letter written in response to Alex Walling's article posted on March 15th, 2013 on TSN.ca. The original article does not mention volleyball, and makes no remarks about the sport at all. The original article can be found here.
Now let me just start by stating this: I am not writing this letter attacking your calling Dave Smart a genius. Being from Ottawa, I am in 100% agreement with that statement. While basketball is not my main sport, having only played in High School, just as a sports fan watching from the stands at the Ravens Nest, you immediately get the notion that this is a special program. You want to win CIS Titles? You play for Dave Smart. Plain and simple.
The reason for this letter concerns one of the last lines of your article. A line that you probably thought nothing of, but struck a chord with me. When you stated that Glen Constantine, Laval’s Football coach, was “The only coach that can give Smart a run for his money”.
My question is, were other University sports considered? Were women’s sports considered? Or did you stay in the realm of men’s basketball, football, and hockey?
While I can’t speak for other sports, I can open your eyes to the world of women’s volleyball, and the Genius that is Doug Reimer of the UBC Thunderbirds.
UBC claims their fifth national title in a row.
It was hardly the dominant run of years past, but the UBC Thunderbirds claimed their fifth-consecutive national women’s volleyball title at the expense of the Alberta Pandas on Sunday night.
Battling back from a two set to one deficit in front of a large and energized crowd at McMaster’s Burridge Gym, the Thunderbirds capped their comeback victory with a block on Alberta’s rookie standout Alena Omelchenko.
Final set scores were 25-21, 15-25, 19-25, 25-20, 15-12 in favour of the British Columbian outfit in what was a neck-and-neck encounter between the nation’s top two teams.
The opening frame saw the Pandas open an early lead at 10-6 as UBC began to misfire from the outside, and the Alberta squad would maintain that advantage at the technical timeout after an emotional single block brought the score to 16-13 in their favour.
The Thunderbirds would emerge the stronger from the timeout however, and after Omelchenko botched an attempted attack from the middle, the Pandas’ lead had dwindled to just a single point at 20-19. UBC seized their opportunity and completed the first set comeback with a double block for 25-21.
Graphic: Google
It's the end of the regular season for CIS Men's and Women's Volleyball. Teams are wrapping up their regular seasons and many teams are having their senior nights to say goodbye to their teammates leaving this year. Matches are listed below and if there are live video links, we've posted those too.
Men's Games February 11, 2012
- UNB vs. Dalhousie - 2:00 p.m. AST
- McMaster vs. Toronto - 3:00 p.m. EST - Live Video
- Ryerson vs. York - 4:00 p.m. EST
- Calgary vs. Regina 6:15 p.m. CST - Live Video
- Alberta vs. Brandon - 7:45 p.m. CST - Live Video
- Saskatchewan vs. Manitoba - 8:00 p.m. CST - Live Video
- UBC vs. Trinity Western - 7:00 p.m. - Live Video
- Thompson Rivers vs. UBC Okanagan - 8:00 p.m. PST - Live Video
Men's Games February 12, 2012
- Ryerson vs. Toronto - 1:00 p.m. EST - Live Video
- McMaster vs. York - Live Video
Women's games after the break.
We're heading into the home stretch of the CIS volleyball season with this week being the second last week of the regular season. Lots of schools are having their senior nights as they say goodbye to graduating players, many of whom will be playing high level volleyball for the last time. Below is the list of the games this weekend and if available, links to live streams.
CIS Women's Volleyball Games
February 4th, 2012
- Western at Queen's - 12:00 p.m. EST
- Acadia at Cape Breton - 2:00 p.m. AST
- Windsor at RMC - 1:00 p.m. EST
- Memorial at Saint Mary's - 7:00 p.m. AST
- Moncton at UNB - 7:00 p.m. AST
- York at Guelph - 6:00 p.m. EST - Live Stats
- Lakehead at Waterloo - 6:00 p.m. EST
- Montreal at Laval - 6:00 p.m. EST - Live Video
- McGill at Sherbrooke - 6:00 p.m. CST
- Winnipeg at Manitoba - 6:00 p.m. CST - Live Video
- UBC Okanagan at Saskatchewan - 6:00 p.m. CST - Live Video
- Trinity Western at Calgary - 6:00 p.m. CST - Live Video
- Brandon at UBC 5:00 p.m. PST - Live Video
- Regina at Alberta 7:30 p.m. MST - Live Video
More matches after the jump.
Graphic: WikipediaThe 2011-2012 CIS Women's Volleyball season is well underway and heading into the December break. We are going to take this time to review each conference on their way to this year's championship hosted by McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. We'll start off with the OUA.
OUA
With the departure of Laurier from CIS men's and women's volleyball, the OUA has now folded both divisions into one massive 13 team conference. At the top of the OUA is the York University Lions. Undefeated in nine games, the Lions have only dropped three sets this season. Even getting locked in an elevator for just under and hour right before they walked on the court didn't phase them as they defeated the OUA second place team, Ottawa by a score of 3-1. Ottawa sits in a little pack of three teams fighting out for the second spot of the OUA with a record of 7-3. The other two teams fighting it out with Ottawa are Queen's (6-2) and Toronto (6-3). U of T is showing quite the improvement from last year when they finished the regular season with a record of 5-14.
Canada West, AUS and RSEQ after the jump.