8 THE VOICE, TUESDAY, NOV. 24, 2015

EDITOR OWEN MUNRO

SS poris

UBC in first Vanier since 1997

Thunderbirds travel to Quebec City to take on defending champions

By JASON HAMILTON

BC’s football team has earned a
spot in the 2015 Vanier Cup, an
achievement that hasn’t been
accomplished in 17 years.

The Thunderbirds will face off
against the University of Montreal Car-
abins, the defending Vanier Cup cham-
pions, this Saturday, Nov. 28 at Telus
Stadium in Quebec City. The game will
mark UBC’s first Vanier Cup appear-
ance in 17 years.

The Thunderbirds have been on the
road since the Nov. 17 and are current-
ly in Quebec City prepping for Satur-
day’s game.

Kevin Wiens, starting defensive
back for the Thunderbirds, is feeling
the support his school is giving him.

“The President of UBC sent us a con-
gratulations after our win over St.
Francis Xavier, and the student body is
really starting to care about the foot-
ball team,” he said.

But UBC’s student body, nearly
60,000 strong, is just the beginning for
Wiens, who hopes that he and his team
will have all of B.C. behind them come
game night.

Aaron Bailey, President of the UBC
Alma Mater Society said although they
haven’t planned anything yet, there
will most likely be a viewing party at a
local pub.

“I know throughout the year we’ve
been having pre-beer gardens and tail-
gate parties to support the Thunder-
birds and we have been trying our
hardest to pack that stadium and give
them that confidence to hopefully pull
offa ridiculous win this Saturday,” Bai-
ley said.

But despite the Thunderbird’s mo-
mentum, UBC’s alma matter president
doesn’t expect the road ahead to be an
easy one.

“T think it’s going to be a very close
high scoring game cause both our
teams are quite offensive. I would say
UBC edges out Montreal by a field goal,
maybe like 34-31.”

Wiens said the weather shouldn’t be
a factor for the Thunderbirds, after bat-
tling tough conditions in Antigonish,
Nova Scotia.

“T think our last 3 games we have
dealt with either rain or just really cold
or windy,” Wiens said. “I believe by
now we can adapt to the environment.”

UBC will meet the Carabins after
Montreal defeated the Guelph Gry-
phons 25-10 in the Mitchell Bowl earlier

dc.

UBC THUNDERBIRDS ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT photo

b

The UBC Thunderbirds hoist the Uteck Bowl after beating St. Francis Xavier 36-9 on Sat. Nov. 20

in the day.

Wiens said that the Thunderbirds
should be worried about the Car-
abins’ strong starting running
back, Sean Thomas-Er. Thomas- ‘
Er rushed for 170 yards and a
touchdown on 23 carries in the
win.

Joe Stewart and friends were

arguing over whether they were
going to watch the game at a lo-
cal pub or if they were going to
throw a party at their friends Al-
ex’s house on Saturday as they
were going to invite themselves
over.

Not all of UBC plans to watch
the game this Saturday though,
as many students are gearing up
for final exams, including Kevin
Xu and Russel Engebretson who
both said they are going to be too
busy to watch the big game.

MIKE F. CAMPBELL submitted photo |
This year’s edition of the

Vanier Cup will be the 51st.
It is UBC’s sixth time in the
national championship, and |
first since 1997. ‘

AARON BAILEY
President of the
UBC Alma Mater
Society

66

Iwould
say UBC
edges out
Montreal
by a field
goal,
maybe like
34-31

Basketball teams finding momentum

Men’s and women’s teams
win one and lose one on
Vancouver Island in final
games before holidays

By SEYEDMOSTAFA RAZIEI

lege basketball teams will come

back from their holiday break with
momentum after finishing the first-half
of their seasons with wins over Camo-
sun College.

On Friday, Nov. 20, Vancouver Island
University Mariners (VIU) hosted Lan-
gara, where the women lost 82-51 and
the men lost 102-78.

For Paul Eberhardt, head coach of
the men’s team, the result was expect-
ed as VIU is currently ranked the num-
ber one team in the Canadian Colle-
giate Athletic Association (CCAA)
national rankings.

“VIU is a very big team and we are a
bit of a smaller team. They are a very

Te: men and women’s Langara Col-

talented team,” Eberhardt said. “We
are playing at a very fast pace, but I
think we are not in the shape that we
must be.”

He also said that Langara must work
on rebounding and improve their fit-
ness in order to do a better job in the
second-half of the season.

On Saturday night at Camosun Col-
lege in Victoria, the women redeemed
themselves with a 73-53 victory, while
the men won a close game, 77-74.

For Grant Galbraith, who plays cen-
tre for the men’s team, it’s a competi-
tive league for a young team, but he
believes Langara has a real good
chance in the second-half to continue
to win more games.

“Christmas break is a good opportu-
nity for all of us to work on our skills
individually,” Galbraith said. “I am
proud that none of us are really great,
but we are able to come together really
well.”

Mike Evans, head coach of women’s
team, said that in the face of the final

exam break, it will not be easy to get
players together to practice.

“When we come back, we will just
practice every day until our league
playoffs start,” said Evans. “Because
we are such a young team, our practic-
es and intensity of our practices will
help us.”

The women’s team consists of seven
first-year players.

“It is a big difference in physical abil-
ity, maturity and experience,” Evans
said. “Learning how to compete against
those players is sort of the next step for
us.”

® Falcons’ Tally t*)

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL MEN'S BASKETBALL
W-D-L W-D-L

3-4-0 5-2-0

Ranked: 5th Ranked: 3rd

66

Christmas
break is a
good op-
portunity
for all of
us to work
on our
skills indi-
vidually
GRANT GALBRAITH

LANGARA FAL-
CONS FORWARD

Ski season
launch draws
big crowds

Vancouver’s big three
mountains open early with
large snowfalls and cold
temperatures on horizon

By MURRAY B. HUNT

season got underway a little earli-

er than normal this year, with not
one but three resorts to choose from
for skiers and snowboarders.

Whistler Blackcomb, Cypress Moun-
tain and Grouse Mountain began oper-
ating their lifts this weekend, after
snowmaking and recent natural snow
helped the resorts open a week earlier
then scheduled.

Marcello Cellai, a first-year Langara
College business student from Italy
said he is excited for the upcoming sea-
son. Cellai is from Sestriere, Italy, the
site of the 2006 Winter Olympic men’s
ski championship.

“Tm looking forward to skiing on an-
other Olympic ski slope this winter,” he
said. “I like to relax
and enjoy the snow
with friends and to
take time and en-
joy the winter.”

Whistler had a
successful opening

T: Whistler and Vancouver ski

weekend, where
they had a snow
base of 77-centime-
ters and over 4,000

he»
MARCELLO CELLAI

First-year busi-
ness student

people on opening

day alone, accord-

ing to communications coordinator
Emily Wright.

“Whistler was busy with 4,343 people
taking to the slopes on opening day. It
has been a great start to the season and
we are about 30 centimeters above our
snowfall from last year.”

Grouse Mountain had a 35-centime-
ter snow base and had an additional 57
centimeters of snowfall during the
weekend. Julia Grant, communications
manager for Grouse, said that they had
several local skiers and riders, noting
the upcoming cold temperatures in the
forecast this week will add more snow
to their base, on top of the snow they
will make themselves.

“The combination of the snow and
sun brought lots of people out onto the
slopes.” said Joffrey Koeman, sales and
marketing director of Cypress Moun-
tain.

“It has just started to snow and we
expect about 20-centimeters of snow
over the next 24 hours,” Koeman said.
“It should be clear after that, so we
would be able to open up more terrain.”

Blackcomb, the second mountain at
Whistler is scheduled to open this com-
ing Thursday.

PAUL MORRISON submitted photo
A Skier at Whistler-Blackcomb