The UBC Okanagan Heat would like nothing more than to get back to the CIS national womenÏ㽶ÊÓƵֱ²¥™s volleyball championship.
The road to get there starts this week in Calgary.
Steve ManuelÏ㽶ÊÓƵֱ²¥™s Heat will face the hometown University of Calgary Dinos in a best-of-three Canada West quarterfinals, beginning on Friday night.
Match 2 goes Saturday, with a third, if needed, set for Sunday afternoon in Calgary.
The series winner will advance to the Canada West Final Four the following weekend at the U of Alberta in Edmonton.
The Dinos (18-6) finished fourth in the conference, while UBCO (15-9) placed fifth.
During the regular season, the teams split a pair of matches in Calgary.
The Heat closed out the regular season over the weekend at home with a two-match sweep of Grant MacEwan, eliminating the Griffins from the playoff picture.
On Friday, UBCO needed five sets (22-25, 25-23, 21-25, 25-21, 15-8) to down the Griffins.
Siobhan Fitzpatrick led the way with 15 kills for the Heat, while Megan Festival and Aidan Lea had 12 and 10 kills respectively.
Emily Oxland had a match-high 22 digs, and Fitzpatrick tied with Kaitlynn Given for most service aces, with three.
On Saturday, UBCO cruised to a 3-0 win (25-11, 25-23, 25-23).
Given ended her Heat regular season career with a match-high 13 kills and added nine digs. Festival, Lea and Fitpatrick all contributed for Heat with nine kills apiece. Oxland had a match highs in 36 assists and 16 digs.
After the match Festival, Oxland and Given were honoured on Seniors Night, recognizing the careers of the three fifth-year grads.
New mark for Heat menÏ㽶ÊÓƵֱ²¥¦
The UBC Okanagan men didnÏ㽶ÊÓƵֱ²¥™t make the postseason but ended the 2016-17 on a high note by establishing a new program record for victories.
The Heat took two matches from Grant MacEwan to finish the campaign at 9-15, the most since their inaugural season of 2011-12 when they went 8-12.
On Friday, UBCO beat the Griffins 3-1 (25-15, 20-25, 25-19, and 25-22).
Lars Bornemann led the Heat attack with 17 kills on a .375 hitting percentage, while Kyle Hinchey and Devon Cote had 12 kills apiece.
Prior to SaturdayÏ㽶ÊÓƵֱ²¥™s match, Alex Swiatlowski and Grant Sonnenberg were honoured on Seniors Night, playing their final games as members of the Heat.
The Heat then proceeded to beat the Griffins 3-1 (22-25, 25-21, 25-15, 25-18).
Lars Bornemann again led the way for the Heat as he finished with a match-high nine kills, but it was second-year libero Eli Risso earned a spot in the record books.
Risso closed out the season with nine digs in the final match, and finished the season with a new Canada West standard of 295.