VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds performed well in their final home match of the regular season, defeating the Lethbridge Pronghorns 86-0 to improve to 3-1 on the year.
 
Adia Pye and Charity Williams continued to be the focal points of the UBC attack, combining for nine tries between them, as the T-Birds received plenty of strong performances across the roster.
 
"We played well as a team today," said Thunderbirds head coach Dean Murten. "We're just getting better as a team, and Lethbridge are a good team, they're well-organized. To break down a team like that you have to collectively be good."


 
Lethbridge had some good pressure in the opening minutes, pushing the ball down the field but were unable to get a clear path forward to the try zone. The T-Birds responded on their first major foray forward, forcing plenty of goal line pressure before pushing the ball out wide to an unmarked Pye in the corner, going up 5-0 within six minutes.
 
Piper Logan soon extended the UBC advantage, breaking through a wall of defenders and wheeling her way to the middle of the try zone to set up Brooklyn Roddham for an easy convert (one of her six successful kicks of the day).
 
Pye continued to deal damage on the right side of the attack, showing off her nifty footwork and juking out a defender before cranking up to full speed and flying in for another five points. Just a couple minutes later, Roddham got further into the action, receiving a nice pass from Charity Williams and finding the lane to put the ball down in the try zone.
 
The Pronghorns began to put together some sustained possession on the ensuing series, getting within a couple yards of the UBC goal line but couldn't punch it in. Williams made them pay on a turnover forced by Olivia Sarabura, as the fifth-year senior pushed it out wide to the speedy winger who ran the length of the field for the score.


 
Sarabura then scored herself down the left flank as UBC resumed their offensive pressure, before Williams notched her second try of the first half in the 34th minute.
 
Tia Jordo made a great play to begin the second half of action, kicking the ball ahead with just the right amount of power for Williams to run onto it and jump on the ball in the try zone. Williams made it four on the day just a couple minutes later, again proving to be too fast to take down.
 
The Pronghorns tightened up their defence as the second half went along, turning away the T-Birds on a few times of asking and frustrating the home team somewhat. Substitute Jaime Dickson did break through in the 63rd with a try, which was followed by another from Pye.
 
Pye then struck again right as the clock hit 70 minutes, grabbing a bobbled kick reception out of the air and taking it in stride to the house, before adding a third in quick succession a few minutes later. Sadie Gluvic ended the scoring late with her second try of the season.
 

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The Thunderbirds will now head to Victoria for their final match of the season regular, a massive clash with the Vikes that will determine who earns the top seed for the Canada West playoffs.
 
"It's massive to us," remarked Murten. "We obviously lost to UVic at the start of the season, this is where it really matters now. We've got to go there and come away with a good performance just to give us a bit of a boost heading into Canada West in a few weeks' time."
 
That battle on the island begins at 1:00 p.m. (PT) on Saturday, October 4th.
 
 
SCORING SUMMARY
               1      2      F
UBC      45    41    86
LET        0      0      0
 
6' – UBC Try – Adia Pye (Brooklyn Roddham convert missed) 5-0 UBC
11' – UBC try – Piper Logan (Roddham convert) 12-0 UBC
16' – UBC try – Adia Pye (Roddham convert missed) 17-0 UBC
19' – UBC try – Brooklyn Roddham (Roddham convert) 24-0 UBC
23' – UBC try – Charity Williams (Roddham convert) 31-0 UBC
26' – UBC try – Olivia Sarabura (Roddham convert) 38-0 UBC
34' – UBC try – Charity Williams (Roddham convert) 45-0 UBC
HALF
42' – UBC try – Charity Williams (Roddham convert missed) 50-0 UBC
44' – UBC try – Charity Williams (Roddham convert) 57-0 UBC
63' – UBC try – Jaime Dickson (Olivia Sarabura convert missed) 62-0 UBC
66' – UBC try – Adia Pye (Sarah MacPherson convert missed) 67-0 UBC
70' – UBC try – Adia Pye (MacPherson convert) 74-0 UBC
74' – UBC try – Adia Pye (MacPherson convert missed) 79-0 UBC
78' – UBC try – Sadie Gluvic (MacPherson convert) 86-0 UBC
 
Bonus Points
UBC – 1
LET – 0