VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds may be favoured to win a third straight Canada West championship, but Friday night is when the rubber really hits the road as the blue and gold open up the 2023-24 season in Edmonton against the Alberta Pandas.
In a battle between the top two regular season teams from last year, this weekend is a tough test right out of the gate for the Thunderbirds as they face a team much like themselves: a veteran group with high expectations.
"They have some veteran players who decided to come back," said UBC head coach, Graham Thomas who enters his 12th season with the T-Birds. "They have a solid defence and they really don't have many changes, much like us. They'll be ready to go."
The Thunderbirds have every intention of earning a sixth conference title in program history come the spring, followed by the ultimate goal of securing their first national championship, an elusive banner that has been tantalizingly close on a number of occasions.
With those lofty expectations in mind, the 'Birds played a difficult exhibition schedule capped off with a pair of games against fellow national championship contender Concordia last weekend.
"I think it was exactly what we wanted, both games could have gone either way," said Thomas. "We fell a little short in both but for pre-season it's exactly what we wanted to get out of that, they helped prepare us for sure for the physicality and strength of opposition we'll be facing all season."
The 'Birds enter the new campaign as a very recognizable group, returning the bulk of last season's core including the team's leading scorer,
Chanreet Bassi, who put up 28 points in 2022-23, the second highest total in the conference.
Adding to the already deep field of returners is a strong recruit class of forwards Leighanna Rizarri, Hanna Perrier, and Makenzie McCallum along with defender Jaylyn Morris.
"We set records and did amazing things last year but came up a little short of the end goal," added Thomas. "I think what will really motivate our group is getting re-focussed on the identity of this team and what we're playing for. We're definitely excited and what a way to start things off by visiting the Pandas. It's a challenging weekend to get started."
This weekend marks UBC's first regular season visit to Edmonton since 2019. Last year, the two teams met just twice with the T-Birds taking both contests.
That challenging first week of the season officially gets underway at 6:00 p.m. PT at Edmonton's Clare Drake Arena. Saturday's rematch is set for 1:00 p.m. Both games will be available live on Canada West TV.
