Twelve graduating seniors later, Women’s Hockey is still poised for dominance

Four times in the last five years, UBC has won the Canada West championship in women’s hockey. It has been by far the best run they’ve ever had, an astounding feat for a team that had previously only won the conference three times. But despite the banners added to the rafters at Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre over the past decade, it was only last season that the Thunderbirds reached their full potential in the conference.

Boasting a talented senior class of 12, including 11 fifth-year players, it was expected that a team with such a level of experience would perform well. But they went beyond that. They broke a conference record, winning 26 out of 28 regular season games. It was the best season Canada West had ever seen.

They won those games because of their seniors. Power forward Grace Elliott, along with team captain and forward Annalise Wong, led the conference in points with 37 and 32, respectively. Wong tallied the most assists during the regular season, with 27 in 28 games, while Elliott scored 24 goals, double that of the second-place player.

That star power extended to the net. UBC’s primary goaltender last season, Elise Hugens, became the fastest goalie to reach 50 victories in Canada West history. During her final regular season with the Thunderbirds, she won all the games she started. Her excellence continued into the postseason, only allowing two goals during the Canada West playoffs. She was crowned the MVP of the Canada West championship.

The team’s success, however, goes beyond statistics and individual achievements. It comes down to chemistry. This senior group had been playing and practicing together for five years, and for a class that big, that synergy matters. It's no accident that their record has improved each year since 2021.

But with their core leaving the team, a major question arises: how will they replace them? The team now has 12 roster spots to fill. That, by itself, would be a challenge. Yet when that roster turnover includes conference and program record-holders, the task at hand isn’t just challenging. It’s near impossible. In all likelihood, women’s hockey won’t repeat their near-perfect 2025–26 regular season. But they can still be a dominant team in the conference.

That success starts with the talent they still have on the roster. UBC will still have an experienced group, consisting mostly of third- and fourth-years. These players will be the decisive force for the ‘Birds in the coming years.

During last season, defender Jaylyn Morris and forward Vanessa Schaefer were part of the team’s first defensive pairing and line, respectively, along with seniors Elliott and Wong up front and defender Ashton Thorpe in the back-end. This choice wasn’t just a chance for second-year Schaefer and third-year Morris to get more experience. They had earned their spots.

In her first season as a Thunderbird, Morris was named Canada West Rookie of the Year, with 17 points scored in 32 games. The following years saw the defender continue to develop and become a staple on the team, playing in every regular season game from her second year onwards.

Morris credits the group’s belief in themselves, and also in her as a player, for her growing confidence on the ice. Especially as a defender, she’s a creative player, sparking scoring chances or jumping up on the rush. Those instincts are why she scored at a nearly point-per-game pace last season. “Being able to try different things and knowing that my team has always got my back … has just really helped me develop and improve into the player that I have [become] over the past couple years.”

Quick on her feet, with a great ability to find offensive opportunities, it wasn’t surprising when she became a back-to-back Canada West Defender of the Year and a first team All-Canadian last year. She’ll be with the team for at least one more season.

They won’t have to rely on just Morris for scoring, however. Schaefer, the one remaining forward from UBC’s top line, also comes into the upcoming season with plenty of experience, albeit not all from the Thunderbirds.

This year, Schaefer made headlines by becoming the first active UBC hockey player to compete at the Olympics, receiving a bronze medal while representing Switzerland in the competition. This was the culmination of her now three-year international career with the Swiss team, representing Switzerland two times at the International Ice Hockey Federation’s Women's World Hockey Championship.

This wasn’t her only experience outside of Canada. Before coming to UBC, Schaefer played a season of professional hockey in Zurich. By honing her skills against professionals and some of the world’s best, she shot onto the scene at UBC. During her first year playing for the Thunderbirds, she was part of the 2024–25 Canada West All-Rookie Team, and in her second season for the blue and gold, she more than tripled her point total from the prior season, going from six to 19. While she’s going into only her third year at UBC, she’ll play a key role in generating offence for the ‘Birds.

But she won’t be alone. Accompanying her will be last season’s breakout star, 24-year-old forward Ilona Markova. Like Schaefer, Markova has plenty of experience outside of UBC. She was a former captain for the under-18 Russian national team, being selected for the roster for the Russian Olympic Committee in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. Although she didn’t get to play any games due to a positive COVID-19 test, she gained plenty of experience during her eight seasons playing professional hockey in Russia.

After being drafted and ultimately cut from the Boston Fleet's roster in the PWHL, Markova came to Canada to play for UBC, and since late 2025, she has been a part of the Thunderbirds squad. It took her some time to adapt to the eccentricities of Canadian hockey, but once she had settled in, she brought energy, speed and high hockey IQ, which quickly turned her into an integral part of UBC’s roster. As the season went on, she only got better, scoring nine points in the T-Birds’ playoff run, culminating in a four-point performance in the team’s final game.

So yes, UBC is losing a lot of talent. But their roster is still full of experienced players other teams would kill to have — award-winners, former professionals, players with massive potential. Next year, countless returning players will have to accept new, larger roles. But they are ready.

Perhaps the player facing the greatest increase in responsibility in the upcoming season is Mya Lucifora. The goaltender played in tandem with Hugens over the last two years, receiving occasional starting opportunities throughout her years at UBC. And while she saw limited action, when she played, she played well. She started in 10 games during her first season, and 15 in the second, earning shutouts in seven of those matches. She also boasted the highest save percentage in the Canada West last year at .948, and the lowest goals-against average in the conference, with 0.83.

While those numbers are fantastic, this upcoming season will make it more difficult than ever to keep that performance up. After competing against Hugens to be the starter throughout her career, with the senior now gone, it’s all on her.

This pressure will be present off the ice as well. Heading into her third year, Lucifora is now one of the team’s more experienced players, poised to become a leader in UBC’s locker room. But to her, that expectation to lead doesn’t add pressure. For her, taking charge and being a role model is part of who she is. “Being supportive and a good teammate is one of the biggest aspects [of] my life. So, I'm just really excited to be in that role,” the goalkeeper said.

Lucifora is also excited to train with the incoming new players, especially the two rookie goaltenders.

“I know what it's like to [come] to a new school and [start] a new chapter in your life. So I just want to be as supportive and welcoming as possible,” Lucifora said. “I want to push them just as much as I want them to push me. And I think that makes us all better.”

Lucifora knows the importance of healthy competition between teammates, probably more than anyone else on the team. Competing for playing time with Hugens gave her the chance to develop her skills, so when the chances to start came, she made sure to make them count.

Despite playing behind the conference’s best goalie, UBC could still rely on Lucifora to fill in and perform. That trust won’t change next year.

In fact, no matter who it is, the team trusts the next person up. No matter who leaves or graduates, the team will be ready. Because having great players is just one part of the equation for the ‘Birds. What Morris, Lucifora and head coach Graham Thomas all emphasized wasn’t just the talent. It was the culture.

“Something that we always take a lot of pride in … [is] creating a real positive, inclusive culture in the locker room,” Thomas said.

The pursuit for this culture starts during the recruiting process, when coaches look for players who want to play their best, and who also push others to be at their best.

“Everyone [has] a team-first, wants-to-win mentality,” Thomas said.

According to Thomas, part of the team’s identity comes from what they’ve termed “the three Rs” — three words that define who they want to be.

First is relentlessness. At every level, whether in a practice or at nationals, UBC’s student-athletes are expected to approach “everything [they] do” with a high level of intensity and commitment. The next is respect. As a team, they work to gain the respect of those around them, but they also show respect to the efforts their teammates are putting in. Then, there’s resilience. No season is easy, and there will be ups and downs. But throughout that, the team is “there to just support each other and to cultivate that team identity.”

Beyond these core values, the team collectively comes up with a motto every season. This “team theme” becomes the group’s north star — a goal for the year, providing extra motivation and a vision for their journey.

Last season, the team’s motto was “climbing the mountain.” For them, the mountain’s peak was to win the U Sports national championship. “We would always say, ‘we're just [taking it one] game at a time, … every game is [a] step up,” Lucifora said. So while the peak might have seemed far away at times, they were always making progress.

But phrases alone aren’t the reason for the team's drive to win. It’s what is behind the mottos that matters. While this starts with the coaching staff, it’s the players that have to follow through. They know they must not only meet the high standards that come with being part of an elite team, but they also need to hold each other to those standards.

The seniors who are leaving the team were once standing where players like Morris, Lucifora and Schaefer now stand: coming in as younger players, being mentored and supported by their older peers. In an interview earlier this year, Elliott talked about the impact defender and team captain Rylind MacKinnon had on her career, and the team as a whole, with MacKinnon’s leadership playing a major role in their success in recent years.

Elliott, Wong and the others learned from MacKinnon and her senior class, and then passed on that knowledge and influence. “Having such a veteran group for a large number of years … as a freshman coming in, they really helped support me,” Morris said. Lucifora echoed that sentiment, having learned from and trained with Hugens for two years. “I’ve never had such an amazing goalie partner … I looked up to her so much.”

It’s not just the veterans, either. The coaches support their younger players, too. From Hugens and Lucifora splitting time — despite Hugens’s elite performance — to Schaefer and Morris both getting time in the starting lineup, UBC was already preparing for the loss of their senior group. Yes, they’d be losing their veterans — but they’d still have experience.

With how players like Morris, Lucifora, Schaefer and more performed last year, they rose to the challenge. Even into next year, that cycle will continue. Rookies Elle Lorenz and Audrey Church played in most of last season’s games, while defender Presley Zinger played in all of them. They’ll all have elevated roles next year, too. In each year of Thunderbirds hockey, they aren’t just focused on the season ahead of them. They’re looking to the future.

Next season will be very different from the previous ones. But with UBC’s track record of developing and supporting their players over the last five years, the blue and gold dynasty in Canada West should expand for years to come — with only a few extra bumps on the road.

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