VANCOUVER – It's been a bit of a scheduling lull for the Thunderbirds these past few weeks, as when they take the field this Friday night against UBC Okanagan it will be just their third game in 26 days. It will also be just their second home game since August 23rd, as the road warriors have played five of their last six away from Thunderbird Stadium.

Everything flips now, however, as the T-Birds conclude the regular season with six games in three weeks, four of them at home. The stretch run begins with a home tilt against the Heat on Friday, October 3rd, followed by another against the Thompson Rivers WolfPack on Saturday, October 4th.

"It was a really busy start to our season with lots of travel and we are now settling in, which has been great to have some time to really focus on areas that we need to focus on now halfway through the season," said UBC head coach Jesse Symons.

Already sporting the best defensive record in the conference, the T-Birds now also boast the best goals-per-game mark (3.38) in Canada West, following three straight 5-0 victories in their most recent outings.

Sienna Gibson, Ella Sunde and Holly Whelan all share the team-lead for goals with five, with Sunde and Whelan also recording three assists each. Jayda Thompson has three goals and three assists on the year, and in total there are eight T-Birds with three or more goal contributions so far in 2025.



"We have so many players that are capable of scoring and we are seeing that with the large amount of different goal scorers," remarked Symons. "It will be important to have everyone continue to stay confident leading into this weekend. We have gotten into great positions and have really pushed players forward, so hopefully we continue this."

The No. 1 ranked team in U SPORTS will face off against two teams hoping to earn their way into the postseason. The Heat are 2-4-2, four points back of UVic who currently hold the fourth and final playoff spot in the Pacific Division. The WolfPack, meanwhile, sit third in the division at 5-5.

TRU's Esi Lufo leads the conference in goals with eight, exactly half of her team's total on the season. She'll aim to be the player to end the UBC shutout streak should the Heat be unable to do so in the first game of the weekend. UBC Okanagan has a nearly complete offensive spread – their nine goals in conference play have been scored by eight different players. Fifth-year forward Abigail Taneda has one of them, and has assisted on three.

The Thunderbirds are fighting to hold off the Trinity Western Spartans (6-2) for first place in the Pacific, and earning the postseason home field advantage that comes with it. Taking the top seed would mean playing at home in the quarterfinal round, and also (should they advance) hosting the Canada West Final Four too.



"We need to keep going game by game," said Symons. "Our division is very difficult with all the teams giving and showing us different looks that we need to be prepared for. It has been clicking so far, which has been great, but we need to keep pushing forward as we start gearing up for playoffs.

"Objective one is to host the Canada West quarterfinal match and we need to keep pushing in order to do that with everyone pushing for the playoff spots. With our start we have really given ourselves a good chance of this, but we are not there yet."

Both games this weekend begin at 6:00 p.m. (PT) at Thunderbird Stadium. You can buy tickets to them and all other UBC home events by clicking HERE.