The UNBC men's soccer team has a tough task in front of it this weekend.
The Timberwolves are on the road in Vancouver to tackle the defending Canadian Interuniversity Sport national champion UBC Thunderbirds.
UNBC opened the regular season at home Sept. 6-7 and earned a split in a two-game series with Kelowna's UBC Okanagan. The T-wolves were shut out 2-0 in the first match but rebounded with a 2-1 victory Sunday thanks to goals from freshman Francesco Bartolillo and sophomore Tofa Fakunle.
The Timberwolves earned three out of a possible six points and sit in the middle of the pack in the tough CIS West Pacific Division.
UBC sits atop the division with a record of 2-0 and six points. The Thunderbirds opened their season last weekend with wins against the University of Victoria (3-1) and the University of the Fraser Valley (1-0).
UNBC head coach Alan Alderson is aware of the task at hand but said the results against UBCO last weekend give his side some confidence.
"UBC will be a handful," he said. "We'll go down and play a giant but with our team this year, we're excited."
Game times for the matches today and Sunday are 2 p.m.
UNBC's women also kick off against UBC this weekend.
The women are coming off an opening weekend where they earned a pair of draws against UBCO.
After a 0-0 tie last Saturday, the T-wolves secured a 1-1 draw in the final minute of injury time on Sunday on a goal by third-year forward Sydney Roy.
UNBC's record of 0-0-2 and two points puts it in a two-way tie for third place with UBCO in the Pacific Division. Trinity Western and UVic are tied for first with 1-0-1 records, followed by UFV at 1-1.
UBC's women are 0-2 after they suffered a 2-1 loss to UVic and a 1-0 loss to UFV.
After earning the draws, the Timberwolves go into this weekend believing in themselves.
"We needed a confidence boost and now we know we can compete and we're ready for the challenge," said Roy.
Game times for today's and Sunday's matches are at noon.
The UNBC teams stay on the road Sept. 19-20 when they visit UFV in Abbotsford.
Their next home matches are Sept. 27-28 when they host UVic.
