VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds booked their place in the Canada West Final Four on Saturday with a 4-0 victory over the Alberta Pandas in a rain-soaked quarterfinal match at Thunderbird Stadium.
The T-Birds kept their streak of scoring at least four goals at home alive against one of the conference's toughest defences, with
Rachel Ramsden,
Christina Donnelly,
Janine Frazao and
Taryn Lim all finding the back of the net.
“Alberta is a very good team. They conceded seven goals all season so to score four on them in one game is great and we could have had a few more too,” said UBC head coach Mark Rogers. “Got to hand it to the girls. At home we've been very very good this year, scoring a minimum of four goals every time we've played here. Hats off to them, they thoroughly deserved the win.”
As they have often done at home this season, the T-Birds jumped out to a lightning-quick start with a goal just over a minute in.
Rachael Sawer played a great cross from the left wing into the middle of the box where Donnelly put a deft touch on it with her head to guide the ball in off the far post.
All-Canadian defender
Kelly Cook, playing her final home game as a T-Bird, set up the second goal with a brilliant two-way play. She stepped up to the Panda's side of the field to intercept a give-and-go attempt with space in front of her. She spotted Ramsden all alone on the far side of the 18 yard box and hit her with a great angled low cross, leaving nobody but the goalie to beat. Ramsden deked out keeper Kelti Biggs for the easy tap-in finish.
“They play a high square line, and they are vulnerable to penetrating passes so we identified that. We managed from a defensive standpoint to put some pressure on high up the pitch and win the ball back in their half, so you only need one or two passes to get in on goal from that position and it worked out,” Rogers said.
The 'Birds added to the lead about ten minutes into the second half, with perhaps their most potent offensive combination hooking up. This time it was team scoring leader Frazao with the set up for Lim, who had just subbed on moments earlier.
Frazao's cross came in from the left wing and Lim fought off a defender in the middle of the box, gaining just enough space to get a head to the ball and stretch the lead to 3-0.
Frazao still found time to get herself in the goals column before it was over, collecting a long through-pass on the left side of the 18 yard box and pulling it back to score from a sharp angle in the 68
th minute.
So far the top three teams have all advanced to the Canada West Final Four, with fourth and fifth seeds Regina and Saskatchewan set to play their quarterfinal match on Sunday.
The winner of that game will join UBC, Victoria and Trinity Western in Langley for the Final Four next weekend, with Victoria and the top other finisher moving on to nationals.
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