LANGLEY, B.C. – It was as close a finish as there possibly can be, but the UBC Thunderbirds came out on the wrong end of a 1-0 decision in the Canada West bronze medal game against the Alberta Pandas Saturday afternoon at Chase Office Field.

Scoreless through 90 minutes, the game proceeded immediately to penalty kicks where the 'Birds lost 8-7 as UBC finishes their season without a medal for the first time since 2014.

In the ninth round of penalties, Alberta's Brooke Lang scored before Pandas goalie Rebecca Reif made the game-winning save. The win gives the Pandas their first Canada West medal since capturing gold in 2013.

"We had an excellent performance today and unfortunately the ball wouldn't go in the back of the net," said UBC head coach Jesse Symons. "Overall we had many positives through the season and some very exciting young player performances."



Reif finished with seven saves to earn the clean sheet victory, while UBC's Emily Moore stopped all four shots she faced in regulation. Reif made two saves in penalties, while Alberta missed the first shot of the shootout.

After winning CW bronze in 2017 and gold in 2016, both at Trinity Western's Chase Office Field, the T-Birds were held off the podium.

UBC finished with a 14-12 edge in shots and a 7-4 advantage in corner kicks.

The Pandas best chances of the opening half came in the 37th minute, when Alberta sent three shots towards the goal in quick succession, but the 'Birds managed to block all three.



UBC finished the first half with an offensive flurry, earning several chances, but, ultimately, came up shy. The T-Birds had four shots inside the last seven minutes of the half, with Reif called upon to make two saves for the Pandas to ensure the teams went into the break scoreless.

The T-Birds finished the first half with a 6-0 edge in shots on goal and an 8-6 advantage in total shots.

Alberta had a great chance to open scoring in the 78th minute, with Morgan Corbett firing a shot on goal from 20 yards out, but it was stopped by Moore.

The match marked the final time fifth year forward Margaret Hadley and defender Emma Kallner donned the blue and gold as they are both set to graduate following this, their final U SPORTS season.

"It was truly a privilege to work with Margaret Hadley and Emma Kallner," added Symons. "They brought the team together and now the young ones will look to follow in their footsteps to get us back to the Canada West Final Four in 2019."