The UBC Okanagan Heat women’s volleyball squad will reflect on a history-making moment this Friday night inside the UBCO gym.

Following their match with Selkirk College, the Heat will raise both the CCAA and BCCAA provincial championship banners to the rafters.

The Heat won the Canadian title last March in North Bay, Ont., the first national team title ever for UBCO.

“The banner raising will be an extremely proud moment for all of us that have been involved in the program,” said Heat head coach Steve Manuel. “Winning a national championship has always been one of our goals, it took many years of hard work and dedication from many, many people to achieve.”

The Heat looked very much like defending champions over the weekend by opening the 2009-10 BCCAA regular season with a pair of convincing wins over Camosun in Victoria.

On Friday night, the Heat downed the Chargers 25-10, 25-19, 25-22. Alex Basso was force at the net leading all scorers with 14 points (10 kills, two blocks and two aces), while Kaylan Gouldsborough was flawless in the middle with five kills and no errors. Leigh Dreher, in her debut with the Heat, chipped in six kills and two aces.

On Saturday, Heat dropped the Chargers 3-0 by scores of 25-15, 25-16, 25-20.  Setter Caitlin Nyhus spread the offence around as Dreher, Basso and Amanda Magyar all had nine kills. Gouldsborough and Lindsay Loseth each added four kills in the middle while rookie Jill Festival came into the second set and swung for five kills, three stuff blocks and chipped in seven digs. Nyhus was also strong on defense with 10 digs.  

“It was great to get these two wins on the road in the books,” said Manuel. “We had an extremely tough exhibition schedule so we are a bit beat up, injured and sick right now. It was good to see the team dig down and get it done.”

The Heat women will play Selkirk Friday at 6 p.m. and Saturday at 1 p.m.

Heat men

The UBCO men were pushed harder than the women, but still came out of Camosun with a pair of gritty wins over the defending national bronze medalists.

On Friday—without the services of veteran starters Steve Clements (concussion) and Trevor Briggs (knee)—the Heat downed the Chargers in four sets (25-23, 20-25, 25-23, 26-24). Nate Speijer led the attack with 19 points, including 17 kills. Jeremy Kler supplied eight kills and two aces, with Mark Broome registering four kills and five blocks.

On Saturday, the Heat needed the maximum five sets but again emerged with the win, 21-25, 25-16, 25-20, 24-26 and 15-11. UBCO made just 12 serving errors in the victory.

Speijer had 25 points on 21 kills, two blocks and two aces. Brett Uniat had 10 kills and five blocks, while Kler chipped in with nine kills, a block and an ace.

Playing on the road against one of the BCCAA’s toughest teams, Heat coach Greg Poitras was pleased with the results.

“With a combination of new faces and freshman, and some guys having to play out of position because of the injuries, I thought the guys performed very well,” said Poitras. “We had some adversity to deal with, the guys played from behind several times and were able to battle back. Two wins was a good start.”

The Heat men will host Selkirk Friday at 7:45 p.m. and Saturday at 2:45 at the UBCO gym.