VANCOUVER – This weekend at home, the UBC Thunderbirds (2-0) look to snag their third straight victory to start their season when they take to their home field against the University of Lethbridge (1-3) on Sunday, September 25
th at 1:00 p.m.
The most recent triumph for
Dean Murten's squad was a dominant 41-0 victory on Thursday, September 15
th against the University of Calgary Dinos at home.
Piper Logan and
Olivia Sarabura each recorded two tries while
Rori Wood,
Sadie Gluvic and
Savannah Bauder each added singles. Logan, a second-year wing, secured her tries in the early stages of both halves, and subsequently received Canada West Player of the Week honours for her efforts. It's been quite a month for
Piper Logan who earlier in September was in South Africa representing Canada at the World Cup Sevens.
"It's obviously very good for Piper to get that honour," said head coach
Dean Murten. "Coming back from Sevens, it's a different game. There's not as much space on the field, so for her to get off a plane and score two tries like that will boost her confidence for sure."
Through two weeks of competition, the blue and gold have put forth a balanced attack where 10 different players have registered tries. Perhaps just as impressive as their Canada West leading 86 points-for is their 24 points surrendered – Also a Canada West best.
Murten claimed, "The defensive performance last week was really important to us. We have leaked too many tries for my liking in the last couple of years so it's something that we wanted to do better. We've got to pride ourselves on our defense and that takes time and toughness and I'm really happy where we are with that."
After an 0-2 start to their season, the Lethbridge Pronghorns have split their recent two matches. On September 17th at home, Lethbridge earned a hard-fought 17-13 win over Alberta. But yesterday in Victoria they were on the wrong end of a 53-5 defeat courtesy of the Vikes.
"Lethbridge are well coached. They are coming off a big win last week against Alberta," concluded Murten. "They'll be physical, they'll look to move us around and target certain players within our team, but we'll be ready for that. It'll be a good test for us."
UBC has earned wins in each of their previous three meetings with Lethbridge dating back to September 14th, 2018.
Sunday's 1:00 p.m. clash with Lethbridge at Arthur Lord Field also doubles as the UBC Women's Rugby Alumni Game.
Dean Murten and his coaching staff are emphasizing the importance and the opportunity that his program has to showcase their growth and gratitude to the alumni from previous seasons who have helped shape the legacy of one of the very best U SPORTS programs in Canada.
