VANCOUVER, B.C. – UBC Thunderbirds found themselves in seventh heaven as they took another big step towards defending their U SPORTS women's soccer national championship on Saturday evening.
A pair of goals from
Jade Taylor-Ryan and
Sienna Gibson, and a hat-trick of assists from
Bailey Doerksen, led the way for UBC in a dominant 7-0 quarter-final victory over the visiting Alberta Pandas, booking their berth in next weekend's Canada West Final Four in Calgary.
Doerksen herself,
Sophia Ferreira, and a Pandas own goal rounded off the scoring for UBC.
After completing the Conference's first ever perfect season with a 14 & 0 record, UBC continued their fine form in style, delighting head coach
Jesse Symons.
"We wanted to find ways to break down Alberta and get on the front foot," Symons said after the match. "When the playoffs start, we're ready to go, and we obviously have a little bit of a sour taste in our mouth from last year, losing on penalties, and we wanted to get back to the Final Four.
"First half, they were firing on all cylinders.
Nisa Reehal was amazing, up and down the wing, and Bailey and Jade created so much centrally and with the attacking prowess we have we were able to find some goals in the first half and then see it out."
It was a five star, five goal first half performance from UBC as they ran rampant over the shell shocked Albertans.
The Thunderbirds almost took the lead just 40 seconds in through Doerksen, but Pandas goalkeeper Autumn Wynn denied her from point blank range.
Alberta had some forays forward in the opening quarter of an hour, but without really testing the UBC defence, and when the home side went ahead in the 17th minute, the floodgates opened.
The opener came from a fantastic Ferreira header, rising to meet a Doerksen corner for her first goal of the year.
UBC made it two five minutes later, with Doerksen playing a lovely through ball in for Taylor-Ryan who tucked it away under Wynn.
The pair combined again in the 30th minute, with Doerksen centering for Taylor-Ryan to finish from close range.
Taylor-Ryan was denied her hat-trick by the post five minutes later, but UBC got their fourth a minute later when Ferreira played a beautiful long ball forward to Gibson, who superbly lobbed Wynn for her first postseason goal.
A Pandas own goal in the 39th minute made it five for the home side, and the Thunderbirds headed into the half with a healthy lead.
UBC started the second half where they left off and they added to their tally two minutes after the restart, when
Vanessa Tome caused issues out right before playing it into the middle for Gibson to fire home her second.
Ella Sunde came close with a couple of headers, with Adrienne Poulin forcing a save out of UBC keeper
Dakota Beckett as the Pandas pushed for a consolation.
Doerksen added a goal to her three assists in the 70th minute, timing her run to perfection to get onto perfectly weighted long ball from
Sarah Rollins to round off the scoring.
UBC now head to next weekend's Canada West Final Four and a semi-final match-up against old foes Trinity Western. The tournament will be hosted by Calgary Dinos, with two spots at November's nationals in Halifax on the line, as the Thunderbirds look to go back-to-back for the first time since 2002 and 2003.
"We've had players year after year that have been the star and sort of Player of the Year type players," Symons added. "Jasmine Dhanda,
Danielle Steer, and
Katalin Tolnai, and I feel this year we have a whole bunch of them that could be fighting for that position.
"They're showcasing themselves on the pitch week after week and I'm excited to see what happens next Friday against Trinity Western."
