Last season, after two upsets in the championship tournament, UBC’s men’s volleyball team won U Sports bronze — their best finish since winning gold in 2018. This year, they’ll be looking to improve on last year’s success.
The Canada West (CW)’s preseason coaches’ poll ranked the T-Birds third, behind national champions the University of Alberta and Trinity Western University.
Fourth-year libero Logan Greves and twin brother setter Mason Graves will continue to provide the team with stable defence and leadership. The duo led the team in digs, with Logan leading the conference and earning the CW Libero of the Year award last season.
Third-year players Reeve Gingera and Gavin Moes will be players to watch again. Gingera led the team in service aces, kills and errors with Moes right behind him in all three categories.
Additionally, over the summer Gingera and Mason Greves competed on the international stage, playing with and learning from professional athletes — something head coach Mike Hawkins hopes they bring back to the team.
“Our expectation is that they bring that to our gym. Professionalism is one of our core values, so we're going to continue leaning on them to exhibit those behaviours,” he said.
Conaire Taub, who followed Gingera and Moes in team points, and twin brother Nick Taub “unexpectedly” left the team to pursue beach volleyball opportunities, said Hawkins. Veteran players James Vincett and Jon Lockie are also not returning.
However, with departures comes the opportunity for new recruits to showcase their skills. The team has five first-years rostered including Nik Reimer and Alex Borowski from Volleyball Canada’s national program and Alex Emery, who Hawkins described as an “offensively overwhelming” player.
The mix of upper and lower-year athletes with varying volleyball experiences will work in the team’s advantage, according to Hawkins.
“This level of depth that we have is going to be a superpower of ours.”
Third-year Douglas College transfer Owen Lam is also joining the team. He averaged 4.85 kills per set and a 0.415 hitting percentage last season and Hawkins said so far, Lam has settled into the team well.
“[We] expect that he's a guy who's going to have a pretty big impact this season,” said Hawkins.
One of the recruits Hawkins was most excited about is the addition of assistant coach Jay Tremonti. Tremonti came from Douglas College, where he was the head coach of the men’s volleyball team for the past eight seasons, and by moving from the college to university level, is bringing a lot of resourcefulness and problem solving said Hawkins.
“He has been close enough to our program that he understands how we operate, our style of play, [our] systems,” said Hawkins. “But he's also got an unbiased eye, so he's been able to be critical in the best ways.”
In addition to Tremonti, the coaching staff is setting a higher bar in terms of the team’s performance. Hawkins coached Team Canada at the 2024 Paris Olympics, and from that experience, he is bringing a more clear approach to his coaching and expectations.
“The areas that I have felt it the most have been the standards that I've been able to uphold in our training environment.”
The team’s season will start on the road against the University of Winnipeg on October 19, while their home opener at War Memorial Gym is October 31 at 6 p.m. against the University of Brandon.
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