VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds stayed perfect on the season, chalking up their eighth win of the campaign with a comprehensive 5-0 victory over the visiting University of Alberta Pandas at Ken Woods Field on Sunday afternoon.
Nisa Reehal and
Jade Taylor-Ryan scored two apiece for the Thunderbirds (8-0-0) with
Bailey Doerksen also getting on the scoresheet, as UBC got the chance to give some of their younger players some crucial minutes as their impressive start to the season continued apace.
"We have really good depth and it makes it hard, week in and week out, to select an 11 and an 18," UBC head coach
Jesse Symons commented after his side's big win. "Overall I was just really impressed with the mindset. We wanted a really good start and we got that with a couple of good chances early and Nisa scoring, which was fantastic. And then we were kind of on our way after that, which is great to see as a group as we keep leading towards playoffs here."
UBC started strong and
Vanessa Tome had a couple of early looks on goal in the opening three minutes.
The Thunderbirds got their breakthrough in the 12th minute when UBC captain
Jacqueline Tyrer played a lovely long ball forward for Reehal to chase down. She bore in on goal and slotted it past Alberta goalkeeper Autumn Wynn into the far corner.
UBC doubled their advantage in the 29th minute when
Taiya Dennehy played in for Doerksen.
Alberta (3-4-3) had five shots in the first half, all of them on target, but without really testing
Dakota Beckett in the UBC goal and the Thunderbirds comfortably headed into the break with a two-goal advantage.
UBC made four changes at the half and came out strong for the second with Wynn producing two good saves to deny first
Katalin Tolnai from point blank range before stretching to turn away a
Sophie Damian shot.
Emily Duxbury had a couple of chances for Alberta to pull one back, forcing a near post save from half time sub
Lita Billman and firing an effort over just before the hour mark.
UBC were dominating possession and they exploded with a three goal burst in a six minute spell just past the midway point of the half.
Holly Whelan sent a beautiful ball over the top for Reehal to chase down in the 71st minute. She still had a lot of work to do when she got on the end of it and did it perfectly, round the advancing Wynn and finishing with aplomb for her second the game and UBC's third.
Taylor-Ryan then grabbed a brace of her own in the 75th and 77th minute, the first coming from another fantastic ball over the top from Wheelan and the second set up by
Ava Alexander.
Alberta kept pushing and Wanda Czebreszuk brought a save out of Billman in the 86th minute.
There was to be no consolation for the visitors though and UBC continued their impressive start to the season, taking their record to 8-0 and registering their seventh clean sheet.
The Pandas head back home to Alberta for a pair of matches against the MacEwan Griffins next weekend. The Thunderbirds will look to keep on rolling with a gruelling road trip that sees them travel to Calgary for a game at Mount Royal on Friday night before heading back to B.C. for a ferry trip to Victoria on Sunday afternoon.
"We got Calgary, then Victoria, and have a ferry ride in between," Symons said. "So we'll probably bring some players over just for the Victoria game with the depth we have. We'll manage that, enjoy today, and six points this weekend. Then we'll figure out what we want to look at for next week against MRU and UVic."
