Sophia Ferreira is a pretty stoic soccer player; she’s level-headed on the field and isn’t the first one to show emotion.
But it was different when, after the UBC women’s soccer team lost the 2023 Canada West championship on penalty kicks, she saw Ava Ferreira — her teammate and sister.
“As she walked onto the field, I literally broke in her arms. It was as if I was walking into my mom's arms or my dad's … knowing that I had that extra comfort from my sister,” Sophia said.
“As much as that moment sucked … it was so nice to know that I had someone beyond just the surface level friendship of soccer — it was someone that's literally my family, and she knows how I'm feeling without me speaking about it.”
While it may seem unique that the Ferreira sisters have been playing together on the women’s soccer team for the past two years, they are not the only set of siblings who play on the same varsity team at UBC.
Sophia joined the women’s soccer program in 2021, and her younger sister, Ava, joined in 2023. Although it may have been strange for some to play with a sibling, especially having never played together before, Sophia said that it “came naturally.”
“Obviously, we're really close [as] sisters, but as a teammate, we're like best friends,” said Sophia.
“I never thought that I would be going to school and playing on the same team as her. Her being two years older, we never got to play together,” said Ava. “It’s just been so amazing.”
The story is slightly different for Kiera and Nicole Daly — first-year twins from Ontario on the UBC women’s basketball team. Playing together was always the plan.
“We are super, super close,” said Keira. “I think we always knew that we wanted to stay together and play [in] post-secondary together.”
The two have been playing basketball since they were six years old, spurred on by the rest of their family. In Grade 12, they looked at other schools, but once they came to UBC, they both knew that this was the place for them.
“I think we knew after two or three hours of being there,” said Keira. “We were like, ‘We might have to move across the country.’”
The twins said playing the same position has helped them to become better players.
“Growing up, we would push each other so hard. Everything always got so competitive,” said Keira.
“I think on the court especially, me and Kiera just know what each other are gonna do,” said Nicole. “Sometimes our coaches, they get so stressed about it, because Keira will throw a random ball that's nowhere near anyone, but she knows I'm gonna run on to it.”
Yet playing well together isn’t a result of a metaphysical ‘twin connection’ — rather, it's a reflection of years spent playing alongside each other.
“Because we played together for so long, obviously, we just know what each other are gonna do, and it's really easy for us to play to each other's strengths,” said Nicole.
Logan Greves, a fourth-year libero on the UBC men’s volleyball team, has found the same connection with his twin brother, Mason Greves.
“I'd like to think it's this unspoken chemistry — to be fair, we don't talk too much on the court — but we've been playing together for 10 years now, so I think just the level of trust is quite high,” Logan said.
Logan and Mason started playing volleyball in Calgary when they were young and continued to play with each other throughout grade school. But when it came to choosing a post-secondary, the two were considering different universities.
“Mason was planning on going to U of A, so we were going to go separate ways,” said Logan. “I'm glad we didn't at the end of the day.”
The two have both gathered individual — albeit different — accolades, which has the potential to create tension. However, for Logan, this wasn’t the case.
“I find just naturally when guys play the same position, there can be some tension,” he said. “But with him setting and me being a libero, I don't think there is.”
“Mason was on the NextGen national team this past summer. I'm sure it's easy for people to ask me, like, ‘Hey, are you jealous about that?’” said Logan. “But we are really on our own journey, and we play different positions, so I never really feel any sort of comparison.”
This separation between siblings — allowing each a unique, individual pathway — was important to both Ava and her family during her recruiting process.
“I [didn’t] want to dictate where she end[ed] up,” said Sophia. “So I think those [recruiting] processes were definitely individual.”
Ava kept her options for university soccer programs open, but UBC women’s soccer head coach Jesse Symons stood out to her because he recognized that the sisters had distinct identities.
“He was super interested, and just made it known that … I wasn't being picked because she was there. It was my own journey,” said Ava. “It just happened to be that this was the right fit for me.”
Once Ava made the team, she had some initial nerves about people assuming she was selected because of nepotism, but decided to focus on herself as a player, and person, separate from her sister.
“I just made it a goal of mine to make sure that I was focusing on my process and that she was able to do hers, but we were also there to support each other,” said Ava.
“It can get quite serious sometimes, but I feel like at the end of the day, we're just both here to play and do our own thing, but also support each other through it all.”
Playing on the same team as your brother or sister has impacts off the court too; they are a familiar presence in a new environment.
“It's been amazing, just having him by my side throughout the four years,” Logan said. “Especially coming into my first year, [it] was a really easy transition [with] him being there for me.”
For the close-knit Dalys, having a family alongside them made the transition more bearable.
“If I was just going here by myself, I don't think I could have done it,” said Keira. “It's so much easier having not only a friend here and a teammate, but your family.”
The Dalys, Ferreiras and Greves all said that playing together with their siblings had brought their families closer together. For the Ferreiras, who hail from Coquitlam, playing on the same team makes it easier on their parents as well.
“My parents are very supportive of us at UBC. They love coming out here, and they love coming out to games, they're at everything,” said Sophia. “I think it's really exciting that … there's no divide of me and my sister at different places.”
“I just think it's super surreal for them to have … two of their children on the same team,” said Ava.
The same applied to the Greves family. The immediate family — the twins' parents and two older brothers — all played university volleyball, with their dad even playing for Team Canada in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
“I think volleyball has allowed us to relate more and connect, which I really like,” said Logan.
Having siblings together on teams isn’t a particularly new concept, especially not for the women’s soccer team. In 2018, Janika Sangha joined her older sister, Anisha Sangha, on the team, and next year, Ava said that another sibling will be joining their team.
For Sophia, having other sets of sisters on the same team and seeing how they interacted made the transition easier once Ava joined.
“They were my role models of how I wanted to do it with my sister,” said Sophia.
“I saw how much Anisha was supporting [Janika], but also allowing her to have those moments of mistakes or moments of successes and succeed on her own,” she said. “Because eventually you’re not living right beside your sister or you’re not at every session.”
“It is allowing them to succeed but being their literal biggest fan on the outside.”
Although Ava is the youngest, having experienced playing with Sophia has better prepared her to help the new set of siblings entering the team next year.
“From me just being able to see how she is, there's definitely things that I want to adopt from her mentality,” said Ava. “I think that she's made such an impact on so many of our players that will definitely keep that legacy in terms of leadership for the next set of siblings.”
While all three sets of siblings still have at least a year left playing together at UBC, the memories they have made will stay much longer.
“I think it's going to be really cool to reflect on afterwards, just like all the years we've been playing together, because as of now it's just so normal,” said Logan. “It really is the greatest thing in the world, and I'm sure after my playing days, I'll tell myself it was the best thing that could have happened.”
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