Vancouver – The UBC Thunderbirds are getting set to play host to the third and final stop of the Canada West Women's Rugby Seven Series this coming weekend March 2-3 at the Point Grey campus.
 
The T-Birds will look to maintain their first-place position in the overall standings when they welcome six teams including the UVic Vikes, Alberta Pandas, Calgary Dinos, Lethbridge Pronghorns, UBC Okanagan Heat and the Fraser Valley Cascades.


 
The Tournament will be a round-robin format, with the winner decided by the best win-loss record. Play kicks off at 9 a.m. PT on Saturday at the Gerald McGavin UBC Rugby Centre while on Sunday play shifts over to UBC Thunderbird stadium with the same 9 a.m. start time.  A full schedule of Canada West matches along with links to watch the action via live stream on Youtube can be found here: https://bit.ly/2TfLkAB
 
In mid-February, the T-Birds won the opening rugby sevens tournament in Alberta thanks to an undefeated (5-0) record. UBC then followed that up with a 5-1 mark at stop number two of the series at the University of the Fraser Valley two weeks ago, their lone loss coming against rival UVic who claimed the title after winning all six of their contests.
 
This all adds up to the T-Birds owning top spot in the overall standings entering the final weekend with 27 points, narrowly ahead of UVic at 25 while Lethbridge holds down third spot with 22 points.


 
"The team and I are excited to host the final stop of the CanWest 7s series on our beautiful campus," said UBC head coach Dean Murten. "We'll need to produce some outstanding performances for the full 14 minutes of the games."
 
With just a two-point edge over the Vikes, Murten knows this will be the toughest leg yet.
 
"The top teams will punish you if you lose focus during a game and then it can be hard to get control of the contest.  We have to dominate the point of contact and move the ball better than any other team.  We will focus on one game at a time and hope by the time it comes to the last game on Sunday we're in a position to take the championships.  It all makes for a very exciting few days of rugby."
 
This weekend marks the first time UBC will play host to the Canada West Women's Rugby Sevens Series and it will be available for viewing vie live stream.
 
Overall series standings
Team / Tourney 1 pts / Tourney 2 pts / Total pts
UBC – 15 / 12 / 27 pts
VIC – 10 / 15 / 25 pts
LET – 12 / 10 / 22 pts
CGY – 8 / 8 / 16 pts
ALB – 6 / 6 / 12 pts
UFV – 4 / 4 / 8 pts
UBCO – NA / 2 / 2 pts
REG – 2 / NA / 2 pts
TRU – 1 / NA / 1 pt