VICTORIA, B.C. – The UBC Thunderbirds sent 13 shots at UVic goalie Puck Louwes, but none of them hit the back of the net as the 'Birds dropped their season opener 1-0 to the Vikes at Centennial Stadium in Victoria on Saturday afternoon.
 
Vikes' forward Kiera Kilby scored the game's lone goal in the 30th minute when she took a lead pass in stride and fired a shot inside the far post, past UBC 'keeper Marlee Maracle. Maracle was possibly screened on the play, as the shot appeared to go between the legs of UBC defender Emma Kallner who was racing back to defend.
 
The Vikes' goal came just seconds after T-Bird midfielder Jasmine Mander found herself with a clear cut chance from the Vikes' penalty spot, only to drive a low shot  into the arms of Louwes.
 
"It was a good game, I thought UVic worked hard and they defended well. We obviously didn't finish our chances today and that's something as a team that we are aware of. If you don't bury chances you don't win and unfortunately we didn't bury our chances today," said UBC head coach Jesse Symons. "Full credit to them, they got a chance and it was a good finish."
 
Louwes was really the story of the game, as many of her saves were off point blank chances from the Thunderbird attackers.
 
She stopped UBC striker Jasmin Dhanda's partial breakaway chance in the 31st minute, charging forward and cutting down the angle on UBC's leading scorer from 2016.



Her best save might have been in the 42nd minute, when she made an acrobatic dive to bat away Aman Shergill's rocket of a shot from 30 yards out.
 
UBC had a glorious chance to equalize in the 55th minute. Shergill wove through defenders off of the left wing and delivered a knee-high cross to the right foot of Dhanda. Dhanda couldn't get over the ball and sent it sailing over the crossbar from seven yards in front of Louwes.
 
"Overall the players need to learn that league play is the next level and they have to start moving more and having the attitude of wanting to go score goals even more than today," said Symons. "Hopefully next week we recover, have more movement up front to unbalance teams a bit more."
 
Although disappointed with his team's effort overall, Symons did have praise for the three first-year players who saw considerable playing time on the afternoon.
 
"I thought Jessica Williams, Danielle Steer and Tess McRae all showed well in their regular season debuts," explained Symons. "Jess did well at the back controlling space, Dani did good things up top creating chances and Tess was solid in the midfield, making accurate passes."

UBC continues their 2017 season on the road next weekend with games on Friday, September 8 versus Trinity Western and Saturday, September 9 against UFV in Abbotsford.