Last season, the smell of victory turned out to be an impossible dream for the UNBC Timberwolves.
They finished their 14-game Canada West schedule with 13 losses, a tie and no wins, finishing last overall with just a single point.
Outscored a combined 48-3, UNBC goalie Brityn Hinche, as the last line of defence, bore the brunt and did her part, making a 128 saves – the second-highest single season save total in Canada West women’s soccer history.
The T-wolves paid for the lack of university soccer experience and had the misfortune of being pooled with some of the best teams in Canada, including Canada West champions Trinity Western and UBC, which went on to win the national championship.
That won’t change. Those teams are still in UNBC’s division. They’re still awfully good and unlike the T-wolves they have an abundance of fourth- and fifth-year players once again.
What’s different this time around for UNBC is their 14 newcomers, as a group, make the T-wolves a faster and more athletic than they were last year and that should translate into more goals scored and fewer shots allowed. It might even lead to a few post-game celebrations on the field this fall.
The T-wolves were in Calgary Friday afternoon to play Mount Royal Cougars (4 p.m. PT start), then head to Victoria to face the Vikes on Sunday (1 p.m. PT).
UNBC had six preseason games to get up to speed and head coach Neil Sedgwick says he expects they will be much improved over last year.
“I think the group has really grown, 14 of them were here last year and they’ve put in some fantastic effort to improve themselves through the winter so there’s been massive growth there,” said Sedgwick, now in his ninth season as UNBC”s bench boss.
“Fourteen new faces have caught on to what we’ve been trying to do throughout the past five weeks and I’m excited to see where we’ll end up. We graduated 10 from last year but eight of them were in their third year of eligibility and only two (striker Claire Turner and defender Sarah Lepine) were in their fourth year and now they’re in their fifth year. This is the first year we’ve had fifth-year players in three seasons.”
The pandemic threw the T-wolves a wrinkle they were not prepared for.
“COVID really disrupted it and we will have players leave the program this year with still two years of eligibility on the table because they red-shirted or came during COVID and they haven’t played in every season,” said Sedgwick. “We were very young as far as eligibility and on-field games were concerned and we will be again this year, with an entirely new group.”
Hinche has a lock on her spot in goal with Kelowna recruit Lauren Gubbels ready to take over in relief. The team in front of them should be much more able to keep the ball away from the UNBC net.
Turner will captain the forward/midfield group, backed by a cast that includes Kjera Heyman, Sidney Elliott, Australia freshman Scarlet Thomas and third-year forward Kate Rattee, who played in League1 this summer for Rivers FC in her native Kamloops.
The backline group includes Lepine, Camryn Cline, Celeste Kirkess and Kambria Mellum and third -year recruit Blake Plummer, an Alaskan native who played two seasons of junior college at Peninsula in Washington state. Mellum, who also played for Rivers FC, had two of the three goals UNBC scored in 2023.
Prince George minor soccer products getting their first crack at playing for the green and gold include defender Alysa Leclerc, midfielder Amneet Toor and striker Maria Sampson.
“I think the players during the winter have created a good foundation and have been able to pass that on to the new faces,” said Sedgwick. “The level that first-years have come in at is very high, maybe the highest freshman group yet, so there’s a lot to work with there. Their overall ability is very high as a group and training has been accelerated because of their level of ability.”
The UNBC women make their home debut at Masich Place Stadium next Friday night when they host Thompson Rivers and will be on home turf to play UBC-Okanagan the following Sunday afternoon.
“We know when we start playing these games in the West any deficiencies we have will be exposed and we have to figure out how to fix that, but you only get that by playing the best,” Sedgwick said. “It’s really an honour, week-in, week-out, to be playing the best teams in the country.
”There’s no guarantees of more wins and less shots but we’re in a good place right now compared to where we were at the end of last year.”
The UNBC men (0-3-1) are at home this weekend to face the UBC-Okanagan Heat Friday (6 p.m.) and Saturday (6 p.m.) at Masich.
