HAMILTON, Ont. – The defending National Champion UBC Thunderbirds begin their final quest to become the first team in history to win three consecutive U SPORTS women's soccer titles when they battle the Guelph Gryphons on Thursday, November 6 in a quarter-final matchup at Hamilton's Ron Joyce Stadium.
"We've been here since Sunday so it's been a good couple days," said UBC head coach,
Jesse Symons, now at his seventh national championship with the T-Birds. "McMaster's facilities are fantastic, the field's in great condition and we're excited to compete at a high level on Thursday for our opening game."
Clinching their 40
th consecutive victory in last Friday's Canada West Championship – the team's second straight title and third in the last four years – the T-Birds enter this week's national championship tournament as the number one seed having led the U SPORTS Top 10 list the entire season.
Facing the Guelph Gryphons for the first time in program history, the OUA finalists are to be dismissed as contenders in their own right at one's peril. Falling in last week's conference final to the Toronto Varsity Blues, the Gryphons lost just one game during the regular season.
"They're definitely a well-known team here in the OUA. We have a lot of Ontario players so a lot have been teammates or have competed against them through youth soccer," Symons added. "They have a lot of talented players and deserve to be here. They have a lot of good attacking players and have shown that they can defend well, so I expect it to be a very tight game."
Given this is the sixth straight season the T-Birds have competed at the national tournament, there are plenty of veteran players who know the ins and outs of navigating what can be a week full of distraction and excitement. But even for those first year players who haven't had that opportunity, competing on the biggest stage is nothing new.
"From a university perspective we've had a few that haven't experienced this, but they have played at the international level in European championships and CONCACAF championships, so overall we have a lot of experience. For our older ones, they know the week, they understand it, they're excited to represent the school and I know they're very comfortable in this environment."
The one difference for all involved, however, is that opportunity to become the first team to win three straight national titles. But it's not an elephant in the room for UBC, thanks in large part to their collective experience.
"In a few years we'll reflect back on what we're doing, but right now we're living in the moment, getting ready. Even the shutout streak, it didn't really faze us, we didn't really talk about it. For me, the character of this group is really about staying consistent and approaching each match with as much focus as possible and I think that's why we're in the situation we're in."
Kickoff for UBC's U SPORTS quarter-final against the Guelph Gryphons is 1:30 p.m. ET/10:30 a.m. PT on Thursday, November 6. The winner will face the victor of the earlier quarter-final between Laval and Cape Breton in one of two semifinals on Friday.
UBC's quarter-final will be available live on
cbcsports.ca,
CBC Gem, and
CBC Sports' YouTube channel.
