At this point in the year, with exams fast approaching and the winter break within reach, all of UBC’s varsity sports have played their last games of 2025. The Thunderbirds have seen remarkable achievements this term, with Women’s Rugby winning a national championship on home soil and Women’s Soccer capping an undefeated season with a Canada West title — but they’ve also had some heartbreakers. Football had a down year after the loss of some key players, and both soccer teams faltered at the national level after historic regular seasons.
Win or lose, our writers have been there to chronicle it all. Each member of The Ubyssey’s Sports and Recreation team has been covering one team all term, and as the courts, rinks and fields go silent until January, they’re here to recount the essentials of how each varsity team has performed thus far.
- Kian Gadsby: Contributor / Men’s Soccer Beat Writer
- Luiza Teixeira: Contributor / Women’s Hockey Beat Writer
- Maia Cesario: Sports Senior Reporter / Women’s Soccer Beat Writer
- Ian Cooper: Contributor / Men’s Volleyball Beat Writer
- Sofia Campanholo: Contributor / Women’s Volleyball Beat Writer
- Annaliese Gumboc: Sports Senior Reporter / Football Beat Writer
- Caleb Peterson: Sports + Rec Editor / Men’s Hockey Beat Writer
If you could describe your team’s season in one word, what would it be and why?
(Kian Gadsby | Men’s Soccer): Nearly. It was pretty much a perfect regular season for the team, only to then have disappointment in the playoffs. It was definitely one of those “nearly” years.
(Luiza Teixeira | Women’s Hockey): I would say that the team has been dominating, because of all their success — all their wins in a row, 13 before they lost to the Pandas. They had some pretty great results. They scored five goals in three games in a row, which was pretty impressive, while the other team was either not scoring at all, or just scoring one goal.
(Maia Cesario | Women’s Soccer): The one word I would use would be record-breaking. The women's soccer team had a lot of accolades this year, including their completely clean sheet regular season — not allowing a single goal. Dakota Beckett set a lot of records as a goalkeeper for UBC women’s soccer. They almost kept a perfect, undefeated record going all the way through the year, but it lasted for longer than basically any other team can say they have.
(Ian Cooper | Men’s Volleyball): I'd probably say electric. I think that's kind of basic, but they just play a really exciting brand of volleyball, in the sense that they're dominant, but also, their matches aren't boring. They still find a way to make it exciting, and I think it's because the level of skill across all the different positions is really great, but they also have really good cohesion. They play as a team really, really well, and that makes it a lot more interesting. It's not just one person.
(Sofia Campanholo | Women’s Volleyball): Nerve-wracking. I think that each game got more nerve-racking. They started this season winning most of their games very easily, and then they lost two games in a row. Even though they started to win again, in almost every game, it was in five sets. Even though they were winning, no one knew what exactly was going to happen, so I think that's the word I'm gonna use for it. It's always very intense.
(Annaliese Gumboc | Football): I think I'd go with rough for the football team. There were a lot of young players in really key positions, a lot of mistakes happened that shouldn't have. It was the first time I'd ever seen a player get ejected for derogatory language from a game. But, towards the end, it seemed like they were figuring things out, so I'm excited for next season.
(Caleb Peterson | Men’s Hockey): I would say potential. They've played really well to start the season. They've had a couple rough, close games that have been decided either in overtime, or just by a couple goals. They’re currently ranked No. 1 in the country, but come playoff time, that means little because Canada West is really competitive. They didn't even make it to the U Sports championship last year. So, they'll need to do better this year to follow up on that potential. There's lots of promise, but who knows where it'll go.
Who was your team’s MVP this term?
(Kian Gadsby | Men’s Soccer): I'm gonna give you three. I'll start by mentioning the captain, Markus Kaiser. He led the team admirably throughout the regular season, bringing fifth-year experience — critical to the team. It would be wrong not to mention him in his final year. The person I really want to pick is Theo Afework, the striker. He's a rookie this year, he's been very good, scoring seven goals, including some crucial ones at crucial times. The other guy I want to mention is Luke Norman. I'm really excited to see his development, as he was taken in the Canadian Premier League draft.
(Luiza Teixeira | Women’s Hockey): Because women's hockey has been so dominating, it's rough to choose just one person to be MVP because they're so talented all around. But I am going to say Elise Hugens, the goalie. She has the most wins out of every goalie in the conference right now, going undefeated in nine games. That's really important for the confidence of the other UBC players, especially because we have a lot of rookies this year.
(Maia Cesario | Women’s Soccer): Like Luiza said, it's hard to pick just one. With women's soccer, from the rookies to the seniors on the team, everybody had their moment and their game to step up this season. But for me, I would say that the MVP this term was Jayda Thompson, fourth-year forward. She's an incredible player. In a lot of games, even if she's maybe not the highest on the stat sheet, her energy and her speed always makes an impact. UBC would not have made it into the final game without her performance in the semifinal, where she got two goals and assisted on a third to make a comeback against Laval — it was just incredible to watch. She was the MVP in that game and the reason they made it to the finals.
(Ian Cooper | Men’s Volleyball): I think my answer is Alex Emery. Just from the games that I watched alone, anecdotally, it felt like he was having a big impact. There are definitely other players who've been really impactful, but just looking at the numbers, they fully backed up what I saw. The hitting numbers are ridiculous. Every time I looked, it seemed like he was either getting a huge block or just like hitting a ball into the freaking roof.
(Sofia Campanholo | Women’s Volleyball): I'll probably say Daphne Demiryol. If you pull up stats, her name doesn't really show up because she's a libero. But from what I saw, I thought that without her, we definitely would have lost the game against Trinity Western. She played the majority of the game and she saved the team so many times. I think liberos are funny to watch sometimes, because when you see them compared to the rest of the team, they can be a little overshadowed. This doesn't really happen to her — she's in the spotlight so much because she makes so many great saves.
(Annaliese Gumboc | Football): I don't have the problem other people have. It's pretty easy for football. I think there weren't a lot of great players this year. But I'd say Shemar McBean really stood out. The wide receiver room was one of the brightest spots on the team this year and McBean was a big part of that. Even him being on the field creates opportunities for a lot of the other players. He led the team in receiving yards. He averaged over 16 yards per reception, over 49 receptions. He was one of only two Thunderbirds selected to the Canada West All-Star team. In terms of a player who was able to give the team a chance when everything else was going wrong, he was able to do that.
(Caleb Peterson | Men’s Hockey): I was making fun of everybody for not settling on one player, but I want to do that now. I am gonna go with Chris Douglas, the captain of the men's hockey team. Really, the whole first line of the team — they’re spectacular. It's very evident, there's a reason they're the first line. When they step out on the ice, their chances in the offensive zone immediately increase tenfold. Douglas, as the captain, leads a lot of that. He’s not necessarily the highest scorer, even though he's up there, but he’s the engine that keeps that line going. It's him, it's Sasha Mutala, it's Scott Atkinson — as a whole, that line is definitely the MVP of the team — but if I have to pick one, by the rules that I set myself, I'll pick Chris Douglas.
What was the most exciting game of the term?
(Kian Gadsby | Men’s Soccer): The men's soccer team were really good at making sure their games weren't exciting by controlling the play, dominating and not giving the opposition an opportunity. This is a credit to them, not a criticism. That leaves me with no choice but to pick the dramatic 1–0 victory in the Canada West playoff semifinals against University of Fraser Valley, where Henri Godbout scored in the 120th minute, deep into extra time, to send them through to the Canada West final. I think without a doubt that was the most exciting moment, because for the rest of the season, they were in complete control.
(Luiza Teixeira | Women’s Hockey): The Nov. 21 game against the Pandas. It was at Alberta’s home turf, and UBC won 5–1. I distinctly remember, first of all, the amount of shots on goal. UBC was outshooting the Pandas ridiculously. I was yelling at my sister: ‘There's another one, there's another goal, another one.’ My neighbours must have hated me that evening, but yeah, I really like that game.
(Maia Cesario | Women’s Soccer): Very similarly to Men's Soccer, there were a lot of boring, dominant games. I think the Canada West final against Trinity Western was really exciting because of the energy from the players, obviously being ecstatic to not just win another Canada West title, but to move on to their true goal of the entire season, nationals. But the most exciting game to watch, to mention it again, was the semifinal game at nationals against Laval. It was the first time they had really been tested this season. After going down 2–0 really early in the game before being able to make the comeback against the team they played in the finals the year before — it was a very tense, nail-biting game that made you want to rip your hair out, but it was so exciting. The ending was incredible when they pulled through for the win.
(Ian Cooper | Men’s Volleyball): Similarly, Men’s Volleyball was totally crushing people in some of the games that I watched — they were not fun to watch. But both of the games versus Trinity Western — them and UBC are the top two teams in the country and they've been fantastic. The T-Birds lost the first one, but it was great — it went to the fifth set, which was 15–13. Then there was the next one that they played, which UBC won, they were both awesome. So yeah, definitely those two.
(Sofia Campanholo | Women’s Volleyball): Their second game against Trinity Western was an insane game. They had won the week prior against Trinity Western, but then they had to wait a week to play each other again. Trinity Western was very hungry to win game two. At the beginning, I thought it looked like an easy game for UBC, but then it definitely wasn't. Every single set was so tense. The second set went until 35 points, it was 35 to 33. Every single point, it looked like someone was going to win. It was very intense. In the fourth set, UBC lost the set by a lot — the set was bad for UBC — and it really looked like Trinity Western was going to win. Then in the fifth set, it was 15–13 when UBC finally won. It was a very tense match.
(Annaliese Gumboc | Football): The last game of the regular season against Regina. If we win, we make the playoffs. If we lose, we don't make the playoffs. It's pretty simple. At the start of the fourth quarter, we're down by two scores. I've seen this plenty of times. There have been so many times this year where we start having a bit of a surge in the third quarter, and then we just lose by two scores at the end. But this time, we scored with very little time left. Then, our rookie kicker recovers his own onside kick to give us another chance at the end zone. We get the touchdown, we get the two point conversion to send us to overtime. Our defence, which isn't always the best — facing the second-best team in the conference, with a really good run game — holds them to a two-and-out. Then we get the field goal to win and make the playoffs. It was a very good game.
(Caleb Peterson | Men’s Hockey): For men's hockey, the game against MacEwan that UBC lost 5–4 in overtime. MacEwan is not necessarily a powerhouse, so you’re not thinking that the game will be close, but they exceeded all expectations. It was a tight-checking, chippy game. It was playoff-style hockey. You had a huge scrum at the end of the second period that resulted in multiple people going to the penalty box. A UBC player got flipped over the shoulder of another person and slammed into the ice. It was nuts. MacEwan scored late to tie the game, bringing them back in it, before the MacEwan goalie absolutely stoned UBC with about 40 seconds left before winning it in overtime. For UBC, it's something they should be scared of because while MacEwan is not necessarily on their level, they proved they can win in a rock fight.
What’s the burning question your team will need to answer to find or sustain success?
(Kian Gadsby | Men’s Soccer): Can they cope in the big moments? Because they didn't really, in the three most important games of the season. One was the playoff semifinal, which as I mentioned, Godbout scored the late winner. But if you were predicting it beforehand, UBC should have won that more comfortably than they did. Then comes the Canada West final, which was by far the worst performance of the season, where they ended up losing a game against an opponent which they beat 2–0 earlier in the year. And then, just for good measure, going into the first round of the U Sports Nationals, they lose that as well. Can you cope in the big moments? Can you play as well as you can when you need to?
(Luiza Teixeira | Women’s Hockey): I think mine is similar to Kian’s, just because, while UBC has been consistently dominating the Pandas so far in this season, after a 5-1 win on the 21st, on the 22nd, they lost 2–0. And last year, they lost the Canada West Final against the Pandas, so I think that UBC's goal will be to not lose their shit when it comes down to it against Alberta, because I think they’ll play each other in the playoffs again.
(Maia Cesario | Women’s Soccer): I have two questions. The first one is that they need to figure out what the end of the season will mean for them going forward. They lost their 42-game winning streak. For the first time in a while, they've lost a game. They got silver at nationals, and they were really tested at nationals. They were down a bunch of times, which didn't happen to them at all this season. Will they be able to easily bounce back from this? Was it a bit of unluckiness? Or was it that they maybe weren't as prepared as they thought they were? I also think the big thing for their success next year will be their goalkeeper spot. Dakota Beckett is now graduating, and the two goalkeepers they currently have on the team were both rookies. Emma Sparrow played six games this year, and they kept the clean sheet streak, so she was showing some promise, but there may be a bit of a stumble or a growing period with that. It will be interesting to see how that will fit into their season next year.
(Ian Cooper | Men’s Volleyball): For men's volleyball, they're not going to have issues winning games easily. But there's been these programs that have been completely dominant in a regular season, and then for one reason or another, something's gone wrong. I think there's something to be learned there — how are you going to respond when things finally aren't going your way? How are you going to really just manage to grit your teeth and just get it done when you're the better team, even if it's not all clicking that day?
(Sofia Campanholo | Women’s Volleyball): I think that the women's volleyball team has some issues with overconfidence. Something that I noticed is that they have a tendency of being in the lead in a set by a lot, then it looks like the team relaxes because they think that they already have it, and they stop playing as well. In the second Trinity Western game, they were leading a set 14 to 6, before Trinity tied it at 14. It's happening other times throughout the game, and in other games, this sometimes happens with them. That's an issue that they really have to look into, because instead of having an easy win, they have to win at the last second.
(Annaliese Gumboc | Football): I think the main thing for me is, where is the run game? They ranked second to last in the nation in rushing yards, and they only beat the dead-last team by two yards. It's just such a fall off from where this team was last year with Isaiah Knight and with Dane Kapler. With Riley Michaud towards the end of the year, he started to show some promise, but it really seems like they didn't find a starting back throughout the whole season. It wasn't much better on the defensive side. We ranked dead last in the conference in run defence. There was one game, the first game against Saskatchewan, where they got 202 rushing yards and we got 11, which is the lowest I've ever seen.
(Caleb Peterson | Men’s Hockey): The biggest question is: can they stay consistent? They have been incredibly dominant throughout most of the season. They often win by four or five goals. But they have these weird one-off games where they will just completely lose all of their composure against a team they should beat handily. The best example of this is with MacEwan. They dropped their opening game of the season to MacEwan 4–2, before beating them 6–0, then they dropped the one in overtime that I already talked about before winning the next day 6–1. Then, while a tougher team, they did the same thing against Saskatchewan losing 3–2 in a shootout, then coming out the next day and beating them 7–4. They show their talent. They can beat these teams quite handily, but sometimes they aren't on their game, they have a bad day and they lose a game they should probably win. That's fine in the regular season. Their division is so non-competitive that there won't be an issue for them until the playoffs, but when it hits the playoffs and you're playing in a three-game series, you're not going to be able to drop those games.
What are your predictions for your team going forward — either into next term, or next season?
(Kian Gadsby | Men’s Soccer): I think they'll be more of the same in the regular season. But they're going to lose a couple of core defenders to graduation. The young guys coming in, I haven't seen enough of them to say anything. If they are better, they will go on to win the thing. If they're losing the core of their defence, it may be their downfall. I can see it going fairly similar to this year. Close, but not quite.
(Luiza Teixeira | Women’s Hockey): I think UBC is going to end the regular season as the No. 1 team. I think they're going to be in the Canada West final. The question is, are they going to hold on to win? Or are they just going to bow out, maybe to Alberta?
(Maia Cesario | Women’s Soccer): I'm really excited to see next year because I feel like there are a lot of unknowns, which the women’s soccer team doesn't usually have. I think that after their loss, they will use that as a chip on their shoulder to come back. The regular season will probably look similar to this year. The question is, what will happen in the playoffs? I believe that they could probably make it to the Canada West finals and win the Canada West finals. I don't know for sure if they will be able to get back into the national gold medal game next year. I think it depends on how people are fitting into the lineup, if they are stepping up — fixing what went wrong for them this year.
(Ian Cooper | Men’s Volleyball): They've been No. 1 in the polls — between them and Trinity Western — for over a month. Barring grievous injuries or an absolute shocker of poor play, that's probably the final, both in Canada West and nationally. At that point, I think it's a total toss-up between the two teams, but either way, I think it would just be super entertaining. I guess the prediction is that UBC is making the finals, but I would not be able to pick a champion between the two of them. It's so close.
(Sofia Campanholo | Women’s Volleyball): First, looking on the positive side, of all the games you have left, none of them are against a team that's higher in the standings Of the other games, they're all against teams that are considerably lower in the rankings. It's very likely they're going to stay at least in the top four in the conference. The top teams right now, they are all very similar, but I think it will be hard for UBC to get first place in Canada West just because Thompson Rivers is ahead by a lot. So I think the goal is most likely to try to get to the finals, but while I can see them getting to a very good place, I don't see them being champions here.
(Annaliese Gumboc | Football): We have a lot of young players, players who didn't have a ton of starting experience starting this year, and I think we're going to see a lot of them look more comfortable. I think it's going to be an improved team next year. On defence, there's Deacon Sterna and Jehovany Batalonga in particular. But on offence, I think we're going to have a good passing game next year. After quarterback Drew Viotto got comfortable with the Canadian field, he was averaging about 400 yards passing per game at the end of the regular season, even with the fact that the other team knew that we were going to pass. I am worried because I don't think we have really any veteran receivers anymore. A third-year (Trey Montour) is going to be our veteran in that room. But overall, I think it's going to be good.
(Caleb Peterson | Men’s Hockey): I think my prediction for the end of this year is the ultimate cop-out answer: they will go as far as they will themselves to. I think that they have the talent to win a national championship. But they have to avoid these lapses in concentration. It's a little bit better for them in terms of facing adversity, because Canada West is a powerhouse in hockey. It's not like other sports where you face another conference and you get destroyed. Canada West has historically been great at hockey, so UBC has had opportunities throughout the season to prove themselves, and they've mostly passed those tests. But they're prone to falling apart in a game. I think they'll go as far as they want to. I think they're absolutely getting into nationals. I think they will likely win the Canada West title. I could see them placing on the podium on the national stage, which would be a good season for them. I'm not quite fully confident enough to place my reputation on Men’s Hockey winning gold, but I think it's certainly in the realm of possibility.
