UBCO women returning to volleyball Final Four

Heat come back to win best-of-3 in Calgary after losing opening match

In a winner-take-all match in the quarterfinals of the Canada West playoffs, the UBC Okanagan Heat prevailed over the hometown Calgary Dinos in four sets on Sunday afternoon.

With the win, the Heat move on to the Canada West Final Four this weekend in Edmonton. The Heat will match up with the top-ranked Alberta Pandas on Friday night at 5 p.m. This marks the fourth straight year that UBCO has reached the Final Four.

The win capped a huge come-from-behind weekend for the Heat.

Calgary won the opener of the best-of-three series, 3-0 on Friday, before UBCO won 3-2 on Saturday.

Set scores in Sunday’s clincher were 25-22, 25-22, 28-30, 26-24.

Rookie setter Sara McCreary played outstanding ball for the Heat, organizing a balanced offence as she finished with a career high 55 assists — second-most in UBCO history and a top-10 mark in Canada West post-season history.

McCreary set four players to double-digits in kills with Aidan Lea, Kaitlynn Given and Michelle Jakszuk all swinging for 16 kills while Calgary product Megan Festival finished with 13.

“I think the difference tonight was just all-around support on the court,” Given said after the match.

“We knew that we didn’t want to give up on anything and just had that mentality of going for everything, so that definitely made the difference tonight.”

After finishing with 28.5 points on Saturday, Lea once again stuffed the stat sheet with 16 kills on .393 hitting and four blocks for 18.5 points. The 28.5 points is the fourth-highest single match conference total in post-season play.

Given also hit over .300 (.316), while adding 11 digs and an ace. Erin Drew finished with a team high six blocks.

The Heat will see familiar foes at the Canada West championship on Friday and Saturday.

For the third straight year, the four teams will be Alberta, Trinity Western, UBC and UBC Okanagan — with Trinity Western winning the previous two years.

The 2017 U SPORTS Women’s Volleyball National Championship is being held at Ryerson University in Toronto from March 17-19.