It wasn't always pretty, but the UBC Thunderbirds ground their way to a 17-8 home victory against the Victoria Vikes to close the Canada West regular season. The T-Birds improved their record to 4-1, edging out UVic on tiebreakers to finish atop the Canada West standings.
The match served as a measure of revenge for the Thunderbirds, who had lost 22-17 to their cross-water rivals back in early September. This time, it was UBC who led wire-to-wire as they held firm against a strong Vikes side that was averaging over 50 points a game coming into this one.
"I was very happy with the defence," said Thunderbirds head coach
Dean Murten. "UVic's a fantastic team, they've got a lot of threats, and we contained them really well."
The first 15 minutes of the match were very back and forth, with plenty of kicking and a focus on field position. That changed when
Olivia Sarabura broke through the defensive line to score the first try of the afternoon. It was the third straight game that the Guelph native opened the scoring for UBC, and was a special one for her as one of the six graduating seniors on this T-Birds team.
The rest of the half remained very low-scoring, with the only other points coming from a UVic penalty kick in the 38th minute. Maddy Grant split the uprights for three points, and the two teams entered the break with the score 5-3 in favour of the hosts.
That didn't last for long though, as
Savannah Bauder ripped off a highlight reel play just a few minutes into the second half. After receiving the ball following a scrum near midfield, the UBC fly half froze the first line of the UVic defence with a fake pass, before bursting through the middle. A strong stiff-arm to the last woman back created enough separation for her to dive into the corner of the try zone.
Immediately following that try the Vikes put the T-Birds under several minutes of heavy pressure in their own end, but UBC managed to hold strong with a massive goal line stand. Soon afterwards, the Vikes missed a penalty kick in the 66th, keeping the score at 10-3.
The visitors did get a try on the board with just 10 minutes to play, following another period of pressure put on the T-Birds. However, the convert was missed to continue the trend of kicking troubles for both teams. The two sides combined to miss four of their six kicks on the day.
With the clock winding down and the match hanging in the balance, the crowd at the Gerald McGavin UBC Rugby Centre got to see Bauder come up clutch one last time. The reigning U SPORTS MVP did U SPORTS MVP things, as she made a perfect read to pick off a UVic pass and glided into the try zone untouched to seal the win.
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The result marked a happy end to the regular season for UBC's decorated class of graduating seniors. Along with Bauder and Sarabura,
Lyric Atchison,
Sarah Fong,
Jordan McLeod and
Tessa Strom are all moving on to their next chapter after this season. Coach Murten was pleased to see a couple of those veteran players shine offensively as they grabbed the win in their final time playing at home.
"They're fantastic rugby players," added Murten. "It's a nice way for them to finish their last game here, but there's still a lot of work to do yet."
That work includes the impending Canada West playoffs, taking place in Calgary from October 17th to 20th. UBC will be tested, having to play twice in short succession if they're to repeat once against as conference champions.
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SCORING SUMMARY
         1   2   F
UBCÂ Â Â Â 5Â Â 12Â Â 17
VICÂ Â Â Â 3Â Â Â 5Â Â Â 8
16' – UBC Try – #15
Olivia Sarabura (#10
Savannah Bauder convert missed) 5-0 UBC
38' – VIC Penalty Kick – #8 Maddy Grant 5-3 UBC
HALF
43' – UBC Try - #10 Bauder (#10 Bauder convert missed) 10-3 UBC
70' – VIC Try – #15 Carissa Norsten (#8 Grant convert missed) 10-8 UBC
75' – UBC Try – #10 Bauder (#10 Bauder convert) 17-8 UBC
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