They did it in the regular season, they did it in the Canada West playoffs, and now they've done it at the U SPORTS Women's Soccer Championship. 20 games, 20 wins, and the UBC Thunderbirds have etched their names in gold with the perfect season.
Veteran fullback
Sophia Ferreira, making her 61st career start as a T-Bird, scored the lone goal of the final off a corner kick. UBC defeated Laval 1-0, as they earned six consecutive shutouts across the Canada West and U SPORTS playoffs.
"We knew it was going to be tight, Laval is a really good team," said Thunderbirds head coach
Jesse Symons. "We've talked set pieces all year, Sophia got up and did so well, and then we just shut it down which we've done all year…full credit to the team to push through this event and go back-to-back."
It was perhaps fitting for the Thunderbirds to face the Rouge et Or in the final, exactly two years to the day since Laval defeated UBC in the quarter-finals at the 2022 U SPORTS Championship. Since that game the Thunderbirds have gone on a magnificent run, with a 40-2 record across all competitions, two national titles and a Canada West title, all while outscoring their opponents by a combined total of 125-10.
To begin the final, it was Laval who put the T-Birds under a bit of pressure early on, forcing
Dakota Beckett into a couple of saves. The two sides both settled into a defence-first approach, neither wanting to give up any clear-cut chances.
UBC, though, began to turn up the pressure, getting their first shot in the 29th minute when
Taiya Dennehy let loose a half-volley shot from outside the box that went wide. Just a minute later,
Jayda Thompson didn't miss her mark by much with a header off a cross from
Nisa Reehal.
The T-Birds then found the back of the net just before halftime. A corner from Dennehy found the head of Ferreira, whose effort towards goal couldn't be cleared away by a lunging Rouge et Or defender. Up 1-0 heading into the break, the T-Birds knew they were just 45 minutes away from making history.
The second half was again defensive-minded for most of the way. Ferreira had another chance off a corner in the 60th, but her looping effort was saved.
Holly Whelan knocked the ball into the net just a few minutes later, but it was ruled out for an offside call earlier in the play.
While the Thunderbirds couldn't add to their goal tally, their fantastic defensive play meant Laval couldn't begin one of their own. The Rouge et Or recorded seven shot attempts in the second half, but only two were on target and neither seriously troubled Beckett in the UBC goal.
When the final whistle sounded it was celebration central for the T-Birds, as they experienced the joy of finishing off the greatest season in program history.
"What a special group," added Symons. "They bought in from the very first game of preseason, and they just know how to win…it's an amazing group."
The U SPORTS banner is the ninth in program history for UBC, extending their national record. Rookie
Sienna Gibson was named Tournament MVP, capping off a fantastic debut season for the Vancouver native.
On the other side of the spectrum, Reehal,
Jacqueline Tyrer and
Vanessa Tome – the T-Birds' trio of fifth-year seniors – end their UBC careers with their third national title after previously winning it all in both 2019 and 2023.
The Thunderbirds are the first team to repeat as U SPORTS champions in over a decade, and it's the first time UBC has done so since 2003.
