VANCOUVER, B.C. – Deja-vu for the defending Canada West and U SPORTS Champion UBC Thunderbirds (0-1) on Saturday, as they dropped a tight 19-15 game to Victoria (1-0), beginning their campaign with a loss to the Vikes for a second straight season.
Last year, the opener proved to be the only match that the T-Birds dropped all regular season or playoffs, a script that head coach
Dean Murten hopes his team can follow again, while recognizing that this type of defeat is not all bad.
"If you beat someone 60-0 in the first game you're kind of left not knowing what you need to work on," noted Murten. "Now, we have a lot of specific things we know we have to do better to beat a very good team like Victoria."
The 'Birds were shut out in the first half, but only allowed the Vikes to go up 5-0, as both sides struggled to find their offensive rhythm. The second half saw UBC take a 10-5 lead with a
Jamie Dickson try followed closely by a penalty goal from
Brooklyn Roddham. Barely a minute later, Victoria took the lead back for good with a try of their own, before tacking on another score late in the half to make it 19-10. Dickson touched down her second try of the match in stoppage time, and the 'Birds pressed hard in the final moments, but ultimately the visitors from Vancouver Island held on for the 19-15 win.
"We've got to be more fluid with the ball," said Murten. "We get in certain areas of the field, we look like we're on top, we're applying pressure, then we make a mistake and lose the ball. A good team like U Vic just punishes you for that."
After the two teams felt each other out in the opening minutes of the match, the Vikes began asserting pressure on the home side. Victoria marched down the pitch and pressed near the UBC try zone, with the T-Birds bending but refusing to break.
In the ninth minute, it looked like the Vikes had finally taken the lead, but a would-be try was thwarted at the last moment as the Victoria flanker reached UBC's try zone with the ball but was unable to touch it down.
The T-Birds finally broke 10 minutes of relentless Vikes pressure when
Lana Dueck booted a well-executed drop kick that bounced off of a Victoria player and out of bounds around mid-pitch.
After a series of stops and starts from each side, the Vikes found their attacking form again late in the half. A methodical Victoria attack end up opening a hole on the left side of the UBC defence, with Ivy Poetker finding space to touch it down in the far left corner of the try zone.
UBC immediately found their aggression after giving up the opening score, marching down the pitch until they had a scrum just outside of the Victoria try zone. The T-Birds quickly pulled the ball out and swung it to Dueck, who attempted a cross kick to the far left corner of the pitch, where
Adia Pye had found space. Unluckily for the 'Birds, the ball took a bad bounce and skipped just out of Pye's reach and out of play.
Despite more magic from Pye, last year's Canada West scoring leader, who regularly broke tackles and brought the crowd at the Gerald McGavin UBC Rugby Centre to their feet, the T-Birds could not break through the Vikes defence. Just before the half, Pye went on another run, fighting off a pair of would-be Victoria tacklers before being brought down two meters short of the try zone on a brilliant, individual tackle by Olivia Newsome.
The T-Birds were the aggressors early in the second half, coming out of half-time with renewed energy. Pressure mounted until some slick passing on the right side of the pitch gave Dickson a seam to dart through and scamper in for UBC's first try of the season. A Roddham convert later, the 'Birds were up 7-5.
It did not take long for UBC to add to the lead. Minute later,
Jesse Knaggs offloaded the ball to
Anya Prokopich who burst through the middle of the Vikes defence and set up a penalty try, which Roddham nailed. 10-5 for the T-Birds.
Victoria answered immediately, earning a lineout on the UBC half of the pitch barely a minute later and executing to perfection. The Vikes then broke through the heart of the T-Birds' defence, with Sierra Gillis powering through multiple would-be tacklers before dumping it off to Shaye Ogurek who charged under the uprights to restore Victoria's lead, 12-10.
The match settled back into a stalemate for a long stretch after the flurry of scoring, until the Vikes broke through again, when a seemingly innocent play just on UBC's side of half suddenly became deadly.
A quick crosskick by Justine Blatt-Janmatt bounced perfectly into the arms of ShonDreya Smardon, who had recently been substituted into in. The first-year never broke stride and found a seam in the T-Birds defence, barely touched as she cut through the back line to score another try under the middle of the crossbar. Maggie MacKinnon booted through her second convert of the match and the visitors jumped out to the biggest lead for either side, 19-10.
The urgency ramped up for the 'Birds, but the Vikes held strong against the home side's attack. It took until stoppage time for UBC to break through, pressing with short passes and long runs along the right sideline until Dickson broke an arm tackle and trotted into the Victoria try zone for her second score, making it 19-15.
With time nearly out, UBC decided to forego the convert and instead began a frantic attempt to pull out an unlikely win against their longtime rivals. However, the Vikes held strong, stymieing a final run up the right sideline by Dickson to hold on for the win.
After the match, Murten noted that, despite the result, there were some strong individual performances from his team.
"We had a lot of rookies out there who came on," mused the ninth-year head coach. "
Abigail Stanley, an 18-year-old, came out and made a difference.
Jamie Dickson on the wing, it was her first real start at this level, fantastic to see her score twice.
"I was very impressed with all of the youngsters, all of the first-years who came on, which means we've got good depth."
The 'Birds now get a week off, before travelling to Calgary for their only out-of-province game this regular season. They are set to take on the Dinos at 1:00 p.m. (PT) on Saturday, September 13
th. UBC's next home game at the Gerald McGavin UBC Rugby Centre is on Thursday, September 18
th at 4:30 p.m. (PT) against the Alberta Pandas.
SCORING SUMMARY
1 2 F
UBC 0 15 15
VIC 5 14 19
31' – VIC Try - #11 Ivy Poetker (#12 Maggie MacKinnon convert missed) 5-0 VIC
HALF
51' – UBC Try - #14
Jamie Dickson (#10 Brooke Roddham convert) 7-5 UBC
55' – UBC Penalty Goal - #10 Roddham 10-5 UBC
57' – VIC Try - #7 Shaye Ogurek (#12 MacKinnon convert) 12-10 VIC
70' – VIC Try - #24 ShonDreya Smardon (#12 MacKinnon convert) 19-10 VIC
80' – UBC Try - #14 Dickson (no convert attempt) 19-15 VIC
Bonus Points
UBC 1
VIC 0
