The University of British Columbia Athletics

VANCOUVER – The top defence in Canada West women's soccer will battle the league's highest-scoring offence on Saturday as the No. 8 UBC Thunderbirds host the University of Calgary Dinos in a quarter-final playoff matchup in Vancouver.
 
Kickoff is scheduled for 5 p.m. Pacific on David Sidoo Field at Thunderbird Stadium. The game will be streamed with live statistics at CanadaWest.tv.
 
The two teams faced each other in southern Alberta two weeks ago, with UBC winning 3-1.
 
In that game, the Thunderbirds fell behind 1-0 on a goal by Nikki Furukawa, breaking a 724 minute-long shutout streak, but responded with three second-half goals to claim the victory.
 
Furukawa finished third in the Canada West in goals with eight, while teammates Jordan Smith and Tessa Miller both tied for sixth with six tallies each. As a team, the Dinos scored a league-high 37 times in 2013.
 
Head coach Andrea Neil's Thunderbirds are powered by a strong collective defence, which surrendered just five goals in the regular season, the fewest in the Canada West.
 
Goalkeeper Alyssa Williamson was third in the league in clean sheets with five while backup Emily Wilson was tied for fifth, earning a shutout in each of her four appearances.
 
Senior Janine Frazao and rookie Jasmin Dhanda both notched five goals to lead the team while Madison Guy (4), Shayla Chorney and Kym van Duynhoven (both 3) were right behind them.
 
UBC dropped its final regular season game last Saturday by a score of 3-2 against the No. 4 Alberta Pandas.
 
The loss left the Thunderbirds (8-1-3) in a third-place tie in the final standings with No. 10 Trinity Western, but they finished ahead of their provincial rivals on a tiebreaker.
 
The winner of Saturday's playoff game will advance to the Canada West Final Four, to be hosted by the highest-seeded school left in the competition. The University of Victoria is the top seed after winning the regular season title on the final day of league play.
 
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