UBC women’s soccer started their last weekend of regular season games off with a bang, securing a dominating 4–0 win over the University of Victoria Vikes at home on Friday night, playing away from their usual venue, Thunderbird Stadium, instead taking up residence at Ken Woods Field.
“I love the vibes that Ken Woods brings,” said Jayda Thompson. “I think it really brings the team together, it brings the fans all together and really feels so community-based.”
Friday’s game was the start of a back-to-back, hosting UVic Friday and Saturday, trying to cap off their incredible regular season at home. While teams like the Vikes had playoff positioning to worry about heading into this game, UBC’s last weekend of games is more about ending strong, having long solidified their ranking at the top of the Pacific Division.
“We want to keep the momentum going into playoffs here,” said head coach Jesse Symons.
UBC was coming off their final regular season weekend away, with two 1–0 wins against both the Trinity Western University Spartans and the University of the Fraser Valley Cascades. Given how well they’ve played all year, this was one of the more challenging weekends of the season for UBC. The T-Birds had a tough time getting shots and holding strong on defence against TWU — but they showed improvement against UFV.
Yet, despite that improvement, they still missed that usual offensive prowess they have been so well known for this season. These low-scoring games have been a rarity for the team this season — and UBC kept it that way against Victoria, shaking off their offensive struggles in this game, showing up as the scoring powerhouse they are.
UVic played the same opponents as UBC last weekend, facing UFV first in a solid 3–0 win, then playing the Spartans, earning a point with a 2–2 tie. Going into Friday’s game, UVic was in a tenuous spot in the rankings, holding on to the last playoff spot, trying to fend off Thompson Rivers, who sat only four points back before this weekend. They also were almost even with UBC Okanagan in third, who had just beat them two weeks prior. Gaining a few more points this weekend could be very beneficial to them, setting them up to potentially play a lower-seeded opponent.
“We knew UVic is a really good and strong team,” said Sienna Gibson. “They have a lot of strong players, so we knew that we wanted to at least start off with a bang.”
And start off with a bang they did. Straight out of the gate, Ava Alexander — showing her ball smarts — played a great through ball to find Thompson, who jumped on the pass and ran into the box. As the Vikes goalkeeper leapt out to challenge her and tried to grab the ball, Thompson, with a quick move, evaded the keeper and held on to the ball to then fire a phenomenal shot and get the Thunderbird’s first goal of the night, only eight minutes in.
“I could feel the energy of the team,” said Thompson. “As soon as I saw that ball played through by Ava Alexander, I just knew: ‘This is it’ — for the team, for the spark that we have, for the energy for the weekend, for the last weekend of the season.”
Only a few minutes later, UBC was at it again, as Holly Whelan earned the Thunderbirds a corner kick and stepped up to take it. With a beautifully placed corner — almost scoring an ‘Olimpico’ goal — Maddy Norman was the one to ensure the ball went in, putting UBC up 2–0 early on.
With two goals in the first 11 minutes of the game, the T-Birds had already matched the number of goals totalled in their games last weekend. It was as if the ‘Birds were determined to prove that those low-scoring games were uncharacteristic for them — and they did. They outshot the Vikes 15–4 in the match, highlighting the clear mindset change and focus on pushing the offence. They utilized their high press and jumped on every opening or chance for a potential goal.
“We're a team that wants to score goals and get forward,” said Symons. “I thought overall, they had that mindset from the get-go.”
As UBC’s offensive push continued throughout the game, halfway through the first half, Alexander had another great touch to Thompson. As she pushed to the net, Thompson was taken down in the box by UVic forward Sophie Murphy before she could get a shot off. UBC was awarded a penalty kick and Murphy was given a yellow card.
Gibson stepped up to take the penalty and with a beautiful shot, she laid it right into the top corner, placed right where UVic’s keeper had no chance to stop it. With this goal, Gibson became the team leader in goals with seven so far in the season.
“It was a great run by [Thompson] and a great ball by Ava [Alexander]. So I just knew from their hard work, I had to put it in the back of the net,” said Gibson. “It was definitely nerve-wracking, but I knew that I had the abilities to put it in.”
As the T-Birds were quickly up 3–0 in the first half it looked like the start of a blowout. With three different scorers for all three goals, many UBC players were shining on the field.
Even young players were taking chances, with first-year Sophia Abiera getting a break and facing the Vikes one-on-one as she went down the field. She beat player after player with some quick footwork and was able to get a shot off, going just wide. Seeing such an impressive individual effort from a first-year player is a testament to the program — instilling confidence in a player like Abiera to go for a play like that.
In the beginning of the second half, UBC looked to keep momentum as they continued pressure on offence, while UVic looked to get on the board and stop the bleeding. Early in the half, the Vikes didn’t have much luck. UBC kept their momentum after the break, with Gibson at the forefront of the attack. Three minutes into the half, she got the ball in front of the net and fired it right off the crossbar — before finding a few more chances after with three shots in just over ten minutes.
For Gibson, all that pressure eventually paid off. Abiera set up Gibson with a great touch into the box, and while the UVic goalie slid out to grab the ball — much like Thompson’s goal earlier — Gibson evaded her reach to get a phenomenal shot off, scoring her second of the game.
Already down four, the Vikes finally found something on the attack, getting off a major shot by forward Ruby Nicholas as keeper Dakota Beckett stretched out for the ball. While it looked like it was in — fortunately for the T-Birds — it hit the crossbar. The reigning Canada West Women’s Soccer player of the week, Nicholas played exceptionally well, both in that moment and in the game, one of the only success stories for the Vikes trying to set up on offence.
While UVic turned up the pressure and offensive attack in the final minutes of the game, they were unable to connect before time ran out. With the 4–0 win the Thunderbirds continued their season-long clean sheet streak and winning streak — being one game away from a historically great season.
“All the work that we've put in throughout the whole season, we really just wanted to showcase that for this first game, and then hopefully tomorrow as well,” said Gibson.
UBC and UVic would face off again on Saturday night in both teams’ last regular season game. For the Vikes, they’ll likely have a chip on their shoulder after this loss and will hope to improve their performance — especially on offence — in the next match. For the T-Birds, Saturday’s game is also their senior night, as the graduating Thunderbirds — Alexander, Beckett, Sophia Ferreira, Emily Parker, Sydney Slater and Ella Sunde — will be celebrated in front of the home crowd for their last regular season game of their career and UBC will want to show out for them.
“I think we have even more in us, so we're going to challenge us for tomorrow to keep pushing,” said Symons.
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