The University of British Columbia Athletics

Vancouver, BC - The women's soccer team welcome both Manitoba and Winnipeg to Vancouver this weekend as they to seek to continue their undefeated start to the season. With three wins from their last four games and only one goal conceded for the season, UBC look to be rounding into form very nicely. At the half-way point in the season they sit at 3-0-3, ranked 6^th nationally and fourth in the conference with two games in hand on first place University of Alberta.
 
Manitoba are first up on Friday night and they turn up coming off the back of two draws, the first of which was an impressive scoreless result against conference leaders Alberta. Sitting 10^th in the Canada West and with a record of 1-3-3 one could be forgiven for thinking that this should be an easy T-Birds win. However, those three losses came in their first three games of the season and since then the Bisons have gone undefeated; grinding out three draws and a shutout win against Winnipeg. Daniella Scerbo leads the way in scoring with two goals and two assists in just four starts. With only seven goals scored in their seven matches, outside of Scerbo, secondary scoring has been hard to come by.  The two teams met in Manitoba last year and UBC came out on top with a comfortable 3-0 win.
 
After only a 24 hour turnaround, the Thunderbirds are back at it against another prairie foe. Winnipeg sit 11^th in the conference and post a poor return of 1-6-0 on the season. They come to Vancouver on the back of a couple of hidings handed out to them by Alberta, Mount Royal and Calgary in recent weeks. With four losses in their last four, and only one goal to show for their efforts they will be desperate to spring some kind of turnaround for their coach. Winnipeg play Trinity Western University the night before coming to Thunderbird Stadium and they are tough opponents themselves, having started the season as defending CIS and Canada West champions. With two difficult games on consecutive nights, it might be hard for Winnipeg to get the result they need from the rapidly improving Thunderbirds. The last time UBC and Winnipeg met was in Winnipeg last year and UBC came home with a richly deserved 4-0 win.
 
With no major injuries and sitting pretty on the back of some marvelous performances, UBC enter the second half of the season looking full of confidence and menace. It was a bit of a stuttering start for the Thunderbirds as they struggled to generate offense and played out some early low-scoring games, but now Canada West record goalscorer Janine Frazao has appeared to find her mojo and the team have started to rack up the goals. Two goals and three assists in her last three games has sparked this run of fantastic results. The miserly defense that has set such a foundation for the rest of the team comes as somewhat of a surprise as only captain Jordan Kitagawa remains a starter from the regular back four from last year. They have kept everything rock-solid in front of them though, and with the help of some brilliant goalkeeping from Alyssa Williamson they look to keep this shutout streak going for as long as they can. 
 
UBC vs. Manitoba – Friday 4^th October at 5 p.m. @ David Sidoo Field at Thunderbird Stadium
 
UBC vs. Winnipeg – Saturday 5^th October at 5 p.m. @ David Sidoo Field at Thunderbird Stadium