This article is the third of an eight-part series. To read more about what The Ubyssey’s Sports Awards are, check out the first award here.
Sports are often experienced in moments. The highlight-reel catch or save that dominates social media. The feel-good off-the-court story that makes the rounds on local news. The celebration after winning a championship. While we can zoom out to look at the individual athletes or games that mattered this year, for the Moment of the Year award, we wanted to be more granular. The most impactful moment of the year should be a single snapshot in time — often a single play, a touchdown, a goal, a basket — that has come to define this year in athletics, standing out beyond the game it occurred in or the time it happened.
As a refresher, each one of our beat writers from the sports team nominated one athlete for this category, then, after discussion amongst us, we voted for the winner. Reporters could not vote for their own nomination, and in the case of a tie, Caleb Peterson, the Sports & Recreation Editor, would cast the deciding vote. This was our voting committee:
- Luiza Teixeira: Women’s Hockey Reporter
- Maia Cesario: Women’s Soccer Reporter + Women’s Basketball Reporter
- Ian Cooper: Men’s Basketball Reporter
- Sofia Campanholo: Women’s Volleyball Reporter + Men’s Soccer Reporter
- Annaliese Gumboc: Football Reporter
- Caleb Peterson: Sports & Recreation Editor + Men’s Hockey Reporter
And here was our discussion.
Nominations:
(Caleb Peterson | Sports + Rec Editor): I'm officially giving up my Men's Hockey beat for this one. Instead, I'm nominating Women's Rugby, with Adia Pye scoring the game-winning try with ten seconds on the clock to win the national championship on home soil. That is going to be my moment of the year.
It’s particularly because of everything that built up to that. Losing to Victoria every single time they met in the regular season and then losing to them again in the Canada West playoffs. They came back as a lower seed, having a tough path to glory in Thunderbird Stadium at home.
Then, they beat higher-seeded opponents in every single game. They beat Laval as the lower seed. They beat Queens, who had the best player in the country, as a lower seed. Then, they went against Victoria again.
This time, they got their storybook ending. It was a roller coaster of emotions — UBC led most of the game, but then with only a few minutes left, Victoria took their first lead since the 21st minute. It seemed like the Vikes had their number yet again, but then UBC came back with a try in the very last second.
Pye, with only ten seconds until the clock hit 70, took it off the edge to clinch that one. It was absolutely nuts. That is my moment of the year for the suspense, the stakes and the celebration that ensued.
(Sofia Campanholo | Men’s Soccer): I wasn't sure what I was going to say. But then I went back to my piece about the men's soccer consolation final. They won that game against Toronto 2-1, with an important contribution from an unexpected source.
So, my nomination is for Kyle Dent, the player that made the first goal in the second half, putting UBC up 1-0 in the consolation final. This year was his fourth at UBC, making this his last game as a T-Bird.
Throughout his time with the team, he hadn't scored at all. He hadn’t really gotten any playing time, only taking the field in four games as a Thunderbird. Then he came out of nowhere during this game, scoring his first goal at UBC. Off a corner, he jumped up over the pile, scoring a goal very high, there was no way the keeper could have gotten it.
That was an insane moment, because no one even really knew who he was, he didn't do much all year, as a forward. So that's why it was shocking. He hadn't scored anything, and then at nationals, in his last game, he scored his first goal throughout his entire time at UBC.
(Ian Cooper | Men’s Basketball): We were talking about it earlier. I'm actually picking one from the Canada West final against UVic, and I don't really care that it was against UBC. It was just ridiculous.
UVic had a pretty secure lead, but UBC still had a slim chance at a comeback — and they just imploded. First, UVic’s Geoffery James got the steal off Nikola Guzina — and that guy's like 6'1", so even the commentators weren't expecting him to dunk. He let out a thunderous slam.
Then, if that wasn’t enough, UBC turned the ball over again. Then again, this time, Shadynn Smid had a breakaway lane to the hoop, and got another rim-rattling slam. The Victoria crowd went nuts, and it basically secured the title for them. It was just so electric and crazy. It actually did its rounds on social media, both in the States and here.
(Annaliese Gumboc | Football): I kind of wanted to choose the Homecoming win, but I think I have to go with the overtime win against Regina, and the game-winning kick by Alexander Hillyard to clinch a playoff spot for UBC. After being down by 15 points in the last three minutes, season on the line, they came all the way back, stopped Regina in overtime and then drove into field goal range. From there, Hillyard, a rookie kicker, nailed the kick to walk it off.
The emotions of that game were high, especially since it had been over a month since they’d won a game. The vibe on that team was really depressing. So, to do something like that, it was the first time in a while I'd seen the energy go electric like that.
(Luiza Teixeira | Women’s Hockey): I'm going down a whimsical path. During the consolation final, for the first two periods, UBC captain Annalise Wong had a medical school interview that she couldn’t reschedule. So, instead of going to the game, she stayed back in the hotel, half-dressed up in her uniform.
She finished the interview, and then, in the second intermission, she rushed to the game, arriving with her parents and then just ran into the arena. There's a video of her coming into the parking lot that actually went a bit viral too — that’s my pick.
(Maia Cesario | Women’s Soccer): I was very indecisive about this. I am going to go with a moment from Women's Soccer, but I do want to say that Women's Basketball had a great moment too, where, in their quarterfinal win, they got a steal in the last moments to secure their comeback.
But I'm going to go with Women’s Soccer’s final game of the regular season. They won 3-0 — and it was another dominant regular season game — but what made it special was because it was at home, they got to have their senior night, and with that, they made it their second straight perfect regular season with 14 wins, zero losses, zero draws.
They did it for the second year in a row. A perfect regular season had only been done once before in Canada West — also by the Thunderbirds, the year before. That's absolutely insane. With that game, it meant they ended the season scoring 42 goals in the regular season while allowing 0. There were a couple of close calls — Beckett had three saves in the game. There weren't a ton of shots on net, but there were a couple moments that were really close. Beckett came in clutch to get that win and to secure the accomplishment of having no goals allowed in the regular season.
It was just like a really amazing game for the fans, the team, the coach, everybody, to have that success at the end and have all those records. In that game, her final regular season game as a T-Bird, Beckett set like a bunch of records — best goals-against-average in Canada West history, most wins in UBC history, as well as best save percentage. It was just a really perfect end to their regular season.
Verdict:
This was a relatively close race, with votes spread out across nearly every candidate. But in the end, no moment could match the scale and stakes of Adia Pye’s last-second try, stealing a national championship for the T-Birds at Thunderbird Stadium. Here are the voting results:
- Women’s Rugby: Pye wins national championship on home soil - 2 votes
- Men’s Basketball: UVic destroys UBC’s soul in CW Final - 1 vote
- Football: Alexander Hillyard’s game-winning kick to make the playoffs - 1 vote
- Women’s Soccer: Canada West title to clinch perfect season - 1 vote
- Women’s Hockey: Annalise Wong’s mid-game med school interview - 1 vote
- Men’s Soccer: Kyle Dent scores first career goal in final game as a T-Bird - 1 vote
(Caleb Peterson | Sports + Rec Editor): While all of these moments had elements that made them great, there wasn’t anything quite like Women’s Rugby’s win. UVic’s play in the Canada West final had the crowd-pleasing “wow” factor off of a feat of pure athleticism. Hillyard’s kick had high stakes, with the team’s season resting on his foot. Women’s Soccer could be recognized for their remarkable achievement, with their unmatched win streak. Wong’s run back to the consolation final and Dent’s goal had all the qualities of a feel-good story. Pye’s try had it all.
The stakes couldn’t be higher with a national title on the line. The story couldn’t have been written better, taking place at home after losing three straight to the same opponent. It was an incredible play by itself, clinching the win after almost losing it in the final moments. It’s a moment that should go down in the history books. The least we could do is crown it as our Moment of the Year.
