EDMONTON – The UBC Thunderbirds have won their third straight Canada West Women's Rugby Championship with a 24-12 win over the Victoria Vikes Sunday afternoon at Foote Field.

Savannah Bauder scored three tries and added two converts for the T-Birds who capped off a tremendous autumn that saw them go 5-0-1 in the regular season. The blue and gold will now set their sights on the upcoming U SPORTS National Championship tournament in Victoria starting Wednesday, November 2.

"It's exciting, the girls played probably the best first half of rugby we've seen from them, they executed what we asked them to do and it kind of all came together for that first 40 minutes," said UBC Head Coach Dean Murten who was also named the Canada West Coach of the Year for the third straight time following the match. "UVic has a real quality team, they weren't going to lay down and die. They came back (in the second half) and put us under pressure and we did well to hang on there in the end to be honest. But all in all, I'm really happy and proud of what the girls did defensively against a real quality team."



The teams started the game with high-energy, jockeying for field position, but both squads were fruitless on attack until the 15th minute when T-Birds fifth-year and Canada West MVP Shoshanah Seumanutafa punched in a one-yard try that would be converted for an early 7-0 lead.
 
The next scoring action would come in the 31st minute. After a powerful run by UBC's Piper Logan was stopped short, Bauder would run in the short score and convert her own try to give the Thunderbirds a 14-0 lead shortly before half.
 
The Vikes came out of the break aggressive and were rewarded six minutes in with an unconverted try from third-year Zoe Williams to put the score at 14-5.


 
In the 60th minute, Bauder would take her second try to the house on a phenomenal 55 yard effort to increase UBC's lead to 19-5. 
 
Ten minutes later, Bauder would call her own number on a pitch and rumble for another 30 yards and her third score of the game. The Vikes quickly responded four minutes later, however, with a Lucie Romero converted try to move the score to 24-12 on what would turn out to be the final points scored in the match.
 
Once the 'Birds get home from Edmonton, their focus immediately turns to the upcoming National tournament where they intend to push for the program's first U SPORTS title.

"We keep talking about trying to get to the top of Mount Everest and every game is the next stage of the climb," added Murten. "We just have to take each game as it comes. We all know where we want to be and we just have to trust each other. With a bit of luck and staying healthy; we're quality and there's a lot more to come from us I think in the next couple weeks, it's exciting."


 
 
SCORING SUMMARY
            1     2     F
UBC    14   10   24
VIC      0    12   12
 
15'- UBC Try - #12 Shoshanah Seumanutafa (#10 Savannah Bauder Convert); 7-0 UBC
31' - UBC Try #10 Savannah Bauder (#10 Savannah Bauder Convert); 14-0 UBC
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46' - VIC Try - #3 Zoe Williams (Convert Missed); 14-5 UBC
60' - UBC Try #10 Savannah Bauder (Convert Missed); 19-5 UBC
70' - UBC Try #10 Savannah Bauder (Convert Missed); 24-5 UBC
74' - VIC Try #25 Lucie Romeo (#10 Alexie Pusch Convert); 25-12 UBC