VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds booked their berth to next week's U SPORTS Women's Soccer Championship in Kingston, Ontario following a hard-fought 3-1 win over the Saskatchewan Huskies in their Canada West semi-final at Thunderbird Stadium on Thursday afternoon.
The win also affords the Thunderbirds the opportunity to defend their Canada West crown on Friday evening, where they'll play the winner of the second semi-final between Trinity Western and Victoria in the gold medal match-up.
First half goals from
Ava Alexander and
Sophia Ferreira set UBC on their way, although they were briefly pegged back when Cheyenne Lehmann showed great anticipation to pounce on a loose passback to fire Saskatchewan level.
The game was still very much in the balance, but UBC sealed the deal with their third header off a set piece with five minutes of the match remaining, with Ferreira grabbing her second of the game to wrap up a deserving, but at times nervy, victory.
"What an accomplishment for the program, four straight years now," UBC head coach
Jesse Symons noted about his side clinching another spot at nationals. "It says a lot about the team, it says a lot about the players that have lived this from pre-Covid. Excited to go to Queens [University for nationals] now and also compete for another Canada West championship on our pitch like last year.
"To be straight up, we weren't good today. We found a way to win, which was amazing, but credit to our set piece delivery and finishing.
Sophia Ferreira was the best player on the pitch today by a country mile and we need that. If you score three goals in a game, you should win for sure. I felt we were a little nervous today, but this is the nerviest game of the season. This game is the big one. It's almost like a final in a lot of ways and it showed a bit. I'm happy that it came out a bit, as we can chat about it, and that first game at nationals won't be like that for sure."
This year's Canada West Final Four got underway with a fast-paced game that saw UBC come out of the blocks quickly, putting Saskatchewan on the defensive from the early going.
Nisa Reehal had the first chance of the game, but her shot was deflected wide.
UBC got the early breakthrough they were looking for moments later when Alexander superbly got onto the end of
Taiya Dennehy's corner, rising unchallenged to head home the opener.
Saskatchewan settled and got themselves back onto level terms in the 19th minute when Lehmann pounced on a short passback to round
Dakota Beckett and fire the Huskies back level.
The parity was to last for just five minutes before the Thunderbirds retook the lead and once again it came from a set piece.
Sophie Damian sent a long free kick into the box, falling to Ferreira at the back of a crowd of players just inside the box and the Portuguese U23 international powerfully headed past Kalin Roberts.
A looping
Jayda Thompson effort, that didn't miss by much, and a Reehal effort that was saved at point blank range by Roberts, almost saw UBC increase their lead before the half.
Roberts produced another big save to tip away a looping Tolnai effort in the 54th minute as UBC tried to give themselves a two goal cushion.
Saskatchewan enjoyed a large spell of the second half possession without carving out any clear cut goalscoring chances and UBC finally put the game to bed in the 85th minute and it was another set piece that did the damage, with Ferreira rising to head home an
Aislin Phillips free kick.
UBC now advance to Friday's gold medal match-up where they'll either face the Trinity Western Spartans for the third straight season in the championship match or have the opportunity to avenge their only defeat of the regular season against the Victoria Vikes. Saskatchewan will take on the loser of that semi-final in Friday's bronze medal game.
"Two great programs and we have two great, great rivalries with both of them," Symons said of his side's two potential gold medal opponents. "Vic's always kicked us around a little bit. We need to showcase ourselves. That was their first win against us for a while. Maybe we get another crack at them. Trinity is always a great game. A good, strong program that's well organized."
Kickoff for Friday's Canada West Final is 7:00 p.m. at Thunderbird Stadium.
Tickets are available now!
