Image credit: CFJC Today/Anthony Corea

By Marty Hastings

CANADA WEST

WolfPack believing despite unflattering history against T-Birds, say pressure is on UBC in playoff series

Feb 27, 2025 | 2:40 PM

KAMLOOPS — Numbers and history are not in favour of the TRU WolfPack this weekend.

The UBC Thunderbirds will host the Pack in a best-of-three Canada West women’s volleyball quarter-final series that gets underway on Friday (Feb. 28) in Vancouver.

“It’s kind of like a blessing in disguise,” WolfPack libero Madison Maichin said when presented with daunting statistics.

“We can just take it like they’re pressured to win. It’s in their gym. Let the pressure be on their side. For us, to play free because we are the underdog, but honestly, I don’t think we are. I think we know as a team we have the skills and the talent to be better than them and take the win.”

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UBC has prevailed in nine straight matches — including regular season and playoffs — against TRU, each of them via 3-0 sweep in a winning streak that dates back to February of 2022.

The T-Birds swept the Pack in back-to-back matches in Vancouver about a month ago – padding their record (36-6) in the all-time series – and dispatched TRU from the playoffs last year in a conference quarter-final series.

“Sometimes expectations can be a heavy burden,” WolfPack head coach Chad Grimm said. “Reading the numbers and the history, the expectation is UBC wins the series. But they have to beat us and I do think we are a tough team to beat.”

UBC is fifth and TRU is 10th in U Sports Women’s Volleyball rankings.

“If we can apply some pressure, we’re going to be a tough out,” Grimm said, noting serve receive will be of paramount importance against UBC, which is 1-3 in its last four matches.

The WolfPack attack is led by Canada West first-team all-star Rida Erlalelitepe, the first-year Turkish sensation who was fourth in the conference with 258 kills this season.

“It might be like they see us as underdogs,” Erlalelitepe said. “That means we’ve got nothing to lose. We will try our best. If they lose, they have so many things to lose. When you play free, you are playing your best.”

TRU, which has not prevailed over UBC in Vancouver since November of 2019, will have to win twice this weekend in the War Memorial Gymnasium to advance to the Canada West Final Four.

Matches 1 and 2 are slated for Friday and Saturday, respectively, with a deciding tilt scheduled for Sunday if necessary.

“We’ve been working so hard together for so many years and this is our time to shine,” Maichin said. “We put in the work, so we just have to deliver now.”

CFJC Today has asked Erlalelitepe on multiple occasions throughout the season if her WolfPack club has what it takes to reach the national championship for the first time in program history.

She has never wavered in her answer and unflattering numbers against the T-Birds have not shackled belief.

“Yes, of course we can,” Erlalelitepe said. “Hopefully, we will show that in UBC, too.”