For the first time ever (as far as we can tell), The Ubyssey’s Sports section will give out awards. With the 2025-26 school year coming to a close this April, the vast majority of UBC’s varsity sports have also concluded. So, with these awards, we will be looking back on the year that was, choosing the athletes, teams and moments that defined this season across campus. Here are the awards we’ll be handing out over the next two weeks:
- Team of the Year
- Game of the Year
- Moment of the Year
- Breakout Player of the Year
- Rookie of the Year
- Offensive Player of the Year
- Defensive Player of the Year
- Most Valuable Player
All year, our staff has given you detailed, in-depth coverage of UBC’s varsity sports, taking on formalized, sport-specific beats, following their teams throughout every game this season. Based on their expertise, for each award, each writer chose a nomination from within their beat, before we all converged to vote for the ultimate winner.
Beat writers were not allowed to vote for their own nomination. In the case of a tie, Caleb Peterson, the Sports & Recreation Editor, cast the deciding vote. Here is our voting committee for these awards:
- 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
For the first award, we’ll be choosing the Team of the Year. The winner of this award will be the highest-performing varsity team on-campus this year, defining the year in varsity sport for the Thunderbirds.
This was a unique one. While for all other awards, we pitched and debated each nominee’s candidacy, for Team of the Year, we all came to a consensus before we made any nominations. Our choice, in our only unanimous decision, is Women’s Rugby.
As one of only three UBC teams to win a U Sports national championship this year — alongside both Men’s and Women’s Swimming — Women’s Rugby stood out from the pack both in their success and in the manner by which they accomplished it.
Coming off their first U Sports championship in team history last year, the expectations for this team were higher than they had ever been before. That first championship was an exuberant culmination of a near-decade-long journey, returning from nearly being cut as a varsity program entirely to become the top team in the nation. Now, in 2025, fielding mostly the same roster, they’d have a target on their back — with the extra pressure of hosting the U Sports tournament at Thunderbird Stadium.
Early in the year, it looked like they were feeling that pressure. While they disposed of Canada West rivals Calgary, Alberta and Lethbridge with ease (beating them by a combined score of 262–26 in those three games), their perennial rival, the Victoria Vikes, posed a much greater challenge. In 2024, they met the Vikes four times, twice in the regular season, once in the Canada West final and then again for gold in the national championship. They dropped the season opener — and then won three straight.
In 2025, heading into nationals, they had played Victoria three times. And lost them all.
The games were very close, yes, as UBC had only lost their three matchups by a combined nine points. But that didn’t provide much solace after losing the conference title and heading into nationals at home with a much tougher path to return to glory, coming in as the No. 6 seed.
But then, even as it seemed like the odds were stacked against them, in front of their home crowd, the UBC women’s rugby team gave their three best performances in the final three games of their season, knocking off what was — heading into the tournament — Canada’s top three teams, taking them out back-to-back-to-back.
In their quarterfinal game, they handed the No. 2 Laval Rouge et Or their first — and only — loss of the season in a dominant 32–10 showing. Then, they took on the country’s top team, Queens, in a thriller. Despite Queens having Canada’s best player, Lizzie Gibson, who outscored 13 U Sports teams all by herself throughout the year, the T-Birds still prevailed, stopping Queens and Gibson at the goal line to preserve a 20–14 semifinal win.
Then, it all came down to Victoria.
In the one game where it mattered, the T-Birds finally got the best of the Vikes. After Victoria scored the potential game-winner in the 66th minute, going up 13–10 with less than five minutes to play, the ‘Birds took control. With ten seconds before the clock hit 70, Adia Pye found a crease, bursting around the edge to score the decisive try. Winning 15–13, UBC had their second-straight championship.
Women’s Rugby is the Team of the Year for us because, in many ways, they were antithetical to so many of UBC’s other varsity squads this year. For teams like Men’s Soccer, Women’s Hockey, Men’s Hockey and more, their years were defined by fantastic, often historically great regular season campaigns — followed up by playoff disappointment.
Women’s Hockey took home the best record in Canada West history this year, and while they won the conference, they were ousted in the first round at nationals by a No. 8 seed. Men’s Hockey notched the best record in team history. They didn’t win a single Canada West playoff game, failing to qualify for nationals. Women’s Soccer didn’t give up a goal all season until the Canada West semifinals. Then, at nationals, they gave up five goals in three games, losing the gold to Montreal.
There were plenty of great seasons this year, and plenty of great teams to choose from. But none of them could finish the job. Except Women’s Rugby. They didn’t have the same regular season success other groups did — finishing with only a 3–2 record with their two losses to the Vikes — but in the end, it didn’t matter. They got better when everything was on the line.
And, with key players like Pye, Charity Williams, Piper Logan and more having multiple years of eligibility left, they’ll continue to be a force into next season.
“We'll actually be a better team next year, I think,” said head coach Dean Murten, after winning the championship against UVic. “We've got some fantastic players [coming] back from injury, going for a three-peat is something that we'll start looking at pretty soon, really. So I don't think you've just seen it [all].”
For the rest of the country, that should be a scary thought.
