VANCOUVER – A week ago Jesse Symons and the top-ranked UBC Thunderbirds were hard at work preparing for their quarter-final bout with the Regina Cougars, followed by a 'probable' trip East to the Prairies for Canada West Final Four playoffs this weekend.
 
Things change.
 
With Calgary and Thompson Rivers both securing road victories against their Prairie foes, the final four teams are all from the Pacific Division – Meaning that UBC retains home field advantage and will welcome Calgary, Trinity Western and Thompson Rivers to Point Grey this weekend.


 
"The Pacific Division is such a strong division. It shows the strength of the competition that we've been facing all year," claimed Jesse Symons. "Objective number one for us is to be one of the top three that goes off to Nationals. Step two is building off our regular season success and adding another conference title to our list. Our team is excited for the opportunity and hopefully we're able to succeed."
 
Friday night at 5:00 pm, the 'Birds will battle the Calgary Dinos with a berth in Saturday's Canada West championship final on the line. Later that same evening Trinity Western will face Thompson Rivers at 8:00 pm, also at UBC.
 
After a league-best 13-1 record during the regular season, the blue and gold punched their ticket to the Final Four after a dominant 8-1 victory last Friday over Regina. Katalin Tolnai and Jade Taylor-Ryan both supplied hat-tricks while Nisa Reehal and Sophie Damian also found the back of the net. During the regular season UBC scored a league-leading 54 goals while surrendering a league-low of eight goals against.
 
The Dinos finished the regular season with a 9-3-2 record which ranked them third in the Pacific Division. Last weekend Calgary took to the road and edged their rivals from the University of Alberta 3-2. With 35 goals in 15 games, Calgary finished tied for fourth in Canada West goal scoring and allowed the fourth fewest goals against (16).
 
The added intrigue from Friday stems from the fact that UBC's only defeat suffered during the 2022 Canada West season came in Calgary against the Dinos on September 25^th. Dating back to 2018, UBC has captured just one victory in a span of six matches (1-4-1).
 
Symons adds, "We're proud of our regular season, but our program lives for competing for banners and national championships. Calgary has had a great season and has some good attacking threats. We'll have to manage those accordingly and then hopefully we can get around their goal and create for ourselves."


 
The two winners from Friday will meet Saturday night at 8:00 pm for the Canada West championship. The third-place game takes place earlier that day at 5:00 pm. This year with the U SPORTS National championships being held in Quebec City, QUE, the top three teams from this weekend will receive automatic berths at the big dance. But Jesse Symons and his crew are purely focused on getting to Nationals 'through the front door.'
 
"We've had a lot of players that have been here before," concluded Symons. "They experienced the thrill of winning it all in 2019, but also losing last year in the semi-finals. When it comes to this year, we're exactly where we want to be. We are excited to play on our home soil and represent UBC has best as possible this weekend."


 
Tickets for all matches this weekend can found here. All games can also be viewed live on Canada West TV.