VANCOUVER – It's been an ideal start to the season for the Thunderbirds, as they've won each of their first six games, four of them on the road. They've also done it while facing a quite varied slate of opponents – playing four different teams in their first four outings before taking on UNBC twice in a row this past weekend.
Now they're back at home, and have just one game on the docket for this weekend. That's a Saturday night clash against the Thompson Rivers WolfPack, who at 4-2 have been the surprise package so far in the Canada West Pacific Division.
"TRU has had great compete in their games so far this season and we had a great game against them a couple weeks ago," said T-Birds head coach
Jesse Symons, referencing UBC's 2-0 victory over the WolfPack on August 29th. "They have an athletic team and look to go forward quickly, so we will need to be focused."
After winning just four games all of last season, the Kamloops outfit claimed a pair of wins over UFV and Trinity Western last weekend to shoot themselves into second place in the division. Esi Lufo leads the way offensively with five goals (second-best in the conference) as the third-year forward is having a breakout campaign after scoring just three times in her first two seasons with the program.
While the T-Birds as a unit have been high-scoring (ranking third in Canada West in goals per game at 2.83), the offensive has been well-distributed.
Holly Whelan and
Ella Sunde lead the way with four goals apiece, and in total eight different Thunderbirds have found the back of the net and four have multiple assists.
"The team has been very focused on attacking well and we have very good balance amongst our team," added Symons. "We have already played every player on our team through our first six matches and are excited to seeing more contributions from our team with our depth."
Even more impressive than the offence has been the team's defensive performance. Coming off a 2024 campaign where they allowed just four goals in the regular season (breaking the record for best goals against average in Canada West history), the T-Birds are yet to allow a goal this year, and have only allowed eight shots on target.
It's been done with a fairly young defensive core as well, as while there are battle-tested veterans in the form of Sunde and defensive midfielder
Taiya Dennehy, the rest of the top minute earners at the back are second-year
Zoelle Apps and first-years
Sophie Harrison and
Heike Clarke.
In goal, first-year keeper
Emma Sparrow has taken the No. 1 spot early on with five starts, while veteran
Dakota Beckett started the first meeting against Thompson Rivers and
Ashleigh Ramsay made her first UBC appearance off the bench in the second half of last Sunday's game.
"We have been very disciplined as a team defensively so far, starting from the front players and leading back to our goalkeeping," said Symons. "Our back four have really done a great job managing attacking runners and kept teams to few chances so far. When called upon Emma, Dakota and Ashleigh have been fantastic in net."
The WolfPack are the team that have gotten the most shots against the T-Birds so far this season, forcing three saves out of Beckett in that 2-0 UBC win in Kamloops a couple weeks ago. The rematch begins at 6:00 p.m. (PT) this Saturday, September 13th, inside Thunderbird Stadium.
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