This weekend features the final action of the 2025 Women's Rugby 7s season, and the UBC Thunderbirds have their sights set winning their third championship in a row.
After emerging from the first two tournaments of the season with a 10-0 record, their final test is five more matches in Langley to determine who takes home the Canada West banner. With a three-game lead in the overall standings over Victoria (hosts of the last tournament) and Trinity Western (hosts of the final tournament), UBC needs to win just three of their final five matchups to clinch gold.
"We are excited to compete in the tournament and complete our season with our best performance yet," said Thunderbirds head coach
Darcy Patterson. "The Canada West teams have been getting better and better and we would also like to continue to raise our game."
Just like in the first tournament back in January, three Thunderbirds were named to the seven-player "Dream Team" from the Victoria stop two weeks ago.
Kiki Idowu was the lone holdover, joined by
Shalaya Valenzuela and
Skye Farish.
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Patterson is pleased with how the team has progressed over the course of the season, one that was slowed somewhat in its middle portion by the snowfall that caused the Langley tournament – originally scheduled for February – to be moved to the Friday and Saturday of March 14th and 15th.
"The team has really been working on their defensive system and executing their roles," she added. "Their attention to this area was evident in the tournament in Victoria creating a lot of turnover and transition ball. It was very exciting to see a few more players get their names on the score sheet as well!"
11 of the 13 T-Birds on the roster for the Victoria tournament found the try zone over the course of the weekend, including first-year
Mary Sieker who scored her first career UBC try. The blue and gold will be hoping to keep the well-balanced contributions going as they line up for another five matches over the course of about 26 hours.
UBC gets their tournament underway at 10:44 a.m. (PT) on Friday against Calgary, before then facing off against Alberta in the second session at 12:44 p.m. (PT) and closing the day against hosts Trinity Western at 2:44 p.m. (PT). Then on Saturday the T-Birds play Lethbridge at 10:22 a.m. (PT) and rivals UVic at 12:44 p.m. (PT) to finish off the tournament and the season.
"We are working on a few areas identified as opportunities from the last tournament," said Patterson. "However, the main focus is on the joy of playing in one last tourney together and the opportunity to express the work they have put into the season."
"They prepared and trained well over the last few weeks, so enjoying, having some FUN and going into the tournament fresh and focused is our goal. FUN was our focus this year in more ways than one – it represented their desire to be Fierce, United and Never Quitting in the way they played."
Every minute of action from the tournament will be streamed live and on demand on
Canada West TV.
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