VANCOUVER – It was a big night for Ava Alexander, as the UBC Thunderbirds stayed perfect on the season in the defence of their Canada West and U SPORTS women's soccer championships, coming away with a 4-0 victory over the visiting UBCO Heat at Thunderbird Stadium on Friday evening.
 
Alexander finally found a way past a resolute Heat defence in the 41st minute, before a quick blitz to start the second half saw a great strike from her and a penalty from Ella Sunde put UBC 3-0 up by the 49th minute. Alexander completed her first-ever U SPORTS hat-trick just before the hour mark, after some lovely build up play, to round off the scoring and secure another victory.
 
Staying undefeated, and still having not given up a goal in 2025, UBC head coach Jesse Symons was naturally a delighted man at the final whistle, while noting that there were still areas for improvement from his team.


 
"I thought UBCO played really well today," Symons said after the match. "They kept a really good shape and after their last match against them, they wanted to come in today and get after us. It took us a little bit of time to get into the game and their keeper made some good saves in the first half, but then we were able to create a really good goal to end the half.
 
"It was smoother sailing in the second and we started off really well. Every team right now is fighting for playoffs spots and we're in a fortunate place right now where we're in the playoffs, but at the same time other teams are trying to get in, so they need to come here and get points."
 
Goalscoring chances were at a premium in the first half, as both teams struggled to find the telling final ball.
 
Sienna Gibson came closest to breaking the deadlock for UBC, flashing a shot just inches past the left post 10 minutes in.
 
Jayda Thompson showed nice footwork in the box in the 34th minute to make room for the shot, but fired just past the far post.
 
UBCO defended well, with goalkeeper Talia Gagnon dealing with everything the Thunderbirds were throwing at her, and her defence coming up with some big blocks.
 


The Heat were finally undone though four minutes before half time when Thompson's pace took her clear, hitting the endline then cutting it back perfect for Alexander to tuck away her fourth goal of the season.
 
UBC game out strong after the restart and Alexander fired home her second of the night in the 47th minute from the edge of the box.
 
Keeping the pressure on, Katie Scarth brought down a charging Sophie Harrison in the box and Sunde fired the resultant penalty home from the spot two minutes later.
 
Alexander grabbed her hat-trick in the 58th minute, finishing off a nice team goal and a great cross in from Maddy Norman.
 
UBC almost added a fifth when Ella Santarsieri crashed one off the bar with four minutes to go, and although UBCO put some late pressure on the Thunderbirds defence, they couldn't become the first team to score against them this season.
 
"They created spaces," Symons admitted. "But for me, we don't stop. We're going to have spaces available if we're up by a couple and we want to score more goals and open up the game. We challenge our team a lot that we need to go forward and then recover quickly.
 
"Full credit to our team for doing that. In a 4-0 games, they're still dropping down, they're managing spaces, they're clearing balls of corner kicks. Our back four's mindset, and Dakota's in goal, has been awesome this season."
 
UBC are back at Thunderbird Stadium on Saturday evening to face the Thompson Rivers Wolfpack, as they look to make it a perfect 10 to start the season. Kick-off is 6.00pm. The UBCO Heat, meanwhile, head to the island to take on the UVic Vikes at Centennial Stadium.