It was a cold, rainy match at the Gerald McGavin UBC Rugby Centre, as the UBC Thunderbirds overpowered the Calgary Dinos in a 76-0 victory. Adia Pye once again led the team in tries with four, while Kiki Idowu added three of her own.

With the conditions far from ideal, Thunderbirds head coach Dean Murten was pleased with the way his team attacked the match.

"We played the way we wanted to, which was fast," said Murten. "Obviously the conditions had a lot to play in it. There were times we did some fantastic things and it was that last pass we just dropped it, but you have to take into consideration this horrendous weather."



UBC opened the scoring in the 3rd minute, when Savannah Bauder executed a perfect kick play, dropping the ball across the field and into the waiting arms of Olivia Sarabura for the try. Idowu and Rachel Smith soon added scores of their own to stretch the lead to 17-0 early.

The Dinos began to settle in a little from there and put up a strong defensive front for the middle portion of the first half, but it was Pye who helped get the T-Birds going again offensively with a try in the 23rd. Just a few minutes later she broke off another run on the outside, before dishing it to Idowu who ran it in for her second try of the night.

UBC powered home two more tries in the final few minutes of the first half, first off a great solo run from Shalaya Valenzuela before another score by Pye. The home team entered the halftime break up 48-0 and in control of the match.



The Dinos didn't give up, however, and came out strong in the second half, spending most of the first five minutes asking questions of the UBC defense. The Thunderbirds stood tall, and broke through with a Sarabura-led counterattack the other way in the 47th. The Guelph native got her second try of the night after a long run, and Idowu notched another just four minutes later to reassert control for the T-Birds.

The rest of the second half continued to be more of an even battle, with Pye and then Alexis Dobson getting the final two scores for UBC later on in the match. The Thunderbirds walked away with their third straight win, improving to 3-1 on the year.
 

?? WRUG | T-Birds wins 76-0! ??

Kiki Idowu scored 3 of UBC's 12 tries and talked about the team's run of success at home, playing in the rain and next weekend's clash with their archival U VIC after today's match.#GoBirdsGo pic.twitter.com/uYwtH2a5bd

— UBC Thunderbirds (@ubctbirds) September 27, 2024

There's just one more regular season match remaining for the 'Birds, a face-off against archrivals Victoria on Saturday, October 5th. With just a couple weeks before the beginning of the postseason, Murten believes his team is on the right track to be ready for those big matches.

"We just need a bit more cohesion…we just need a bit more time together," added Murten. "But that'll come, we got a good week prep now coming up, so we're in a pretty good place at the moment."

That final regular season match against the Vikes will begin at 1:00 p.m. (PT), at the Gerald McGavin UBC Rugby Centre.
 
SCORING SUMMARY
             1     2     F
UBC    48   28   76
CGY     0     0     0

3' – UBC Try – #15 Olivia Sarabura (#10 Savannah Bauder convert) 7-0 UBC
7' – UBC Try – #1 Kiki Idowu (#10 Bauder convert missed) 12-0 UBC
13' – UBC Try – #8 Rachel Smith (#10 Bauder convert missed) 17-0 UBC
23' – UBC Try – #11 Adia Pye (#10 Bauder convert) 24-0 UBC
27' – UBC Try – #1 Idowu (#10 Bauder convert) 31-0 UBC
30' – UBC Try – #11 Pye (#10 Bauder convert missed) 36-0 UBC
34' – UBC Try – #12 Shalaya Valenzuela (#10 Bauder convert) 43-0 UBC
39' – UBC Try – #11 Pye (#10 Bauder convert missed) 48-0 UBC
HALF
47' – UBC Try – #15 Sarabura (#25 Brooklyn Roddham convert) 55-0 UBC
51' – UBC Try – #1 Idowu (#25 Roddham convert) 62-0 UBC
69' – UBC Try – #11 Pye (#25 Roddham convert) 69-0 UBC
77' – UBC Try – #16 Alexis Dobson (#25 Roddham convert) 76-0 UBC