VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds booked their berth in Friday's Canada West Championship game with a dominant display against old foes the Trinity Western Spartans Thursday at Thunderbird Stadium.
A first half double from
Jayda Thompson saw UBC go in at the break with a two-goal lead. Canada West leading scorer
Maddy Norman added to that tally in the second half as UBC came away with the 3-0 victory.
"I thought our start was exceptional," Thunderbirds head coach
Jesse Symons said after the match. "Definitely showed our athleticism up top. It was a fantastic first 10 minutes and then not much flow. For me, it was a Canada West semi-final between two teams that wanted to get after it.
"I thought there were a lot of fouls carded too, which made it a little bit less flowy but the players had to deal with that. We had to deal with a lot of aerial challenges today with our backline and we just showed how great we are first phase with winning the ball. We made it pretty easy for us in that penalty box."
Trinity Western had looked the better of the two teams in the early going, but were undone by a quick counter attack from UBC in the 10th minute, with
Maddy Norman leaving Danielle Cooper in her wake before squaring the ball for Thompson to have the tap-in.
UBC started to take over the match and Thompson grabbed her second of the game in the 32nd minute when she got onto a great pass from
Felicia Hanisch on another quick transition play and fired home.
Thompson turned creator for Hanisch two minutes later, but she was unable to keep her shot down.
TWU came on strong at the start of the second half, but couldn't find a way through and UBC started to take over once again past the hour mark.
The Thunderbirds put the game to bed with nine minutes remaining when Norman outmuscled two Spartans defenders to control the ball and fire home.
Norman missed a chance to get a brace of her own when Yasmine Pahal denied her from the spot deep in stoppage time.
UBC will now play the winner of the second semifinal between the Thompson Rivers WolfPack and the University of Victoria Vikes in Friday's Gold medal match-up. Trinity Western will play the loser of that semifinal for both the bronze medal and a place at next week's nationals.
Kickoff for the Canada West Final is 4:00 p.m. Friday at Thunderbird Stadium.
Tickets are available online now and the game will also be
streamed live on Canada West TV.
