The Thunderbird women’s soccer team solidified their first back-to-back wins of the season on Saturday evening with a dominating 8-0 win over Thompson River University Wolfpack.
On Friday, the team also defeated UBC Okanagan Heat 2-0.
“Overall, the team’s in a great space, and we’ve focused on October as the month when we want to keep building and get to that next level,” said UBC head coach Jesse Symons regarding the team’s performance. “I think we showed that this weekend in both matches.”
Canada West’s first star of the week, Jasmin Dhanda, put on another impressive show for the home crowd, scoring four goals and providing two assists in the match against the Wolfpack.
“It’s a great feeling,” said Dhanda of her four-goal game. “It’s nice having more than a few goals and I’ve been struggling for … the first few games trying to finish, but it’s nice and hopefully I can keep it going for next week.”
UBC took command of the match early, netting their first of three first-half goals in the 12th minute. Full-back Meagan Pasternak sent a short pass up to fellow team veteran Madison Guy from the touch line, who sent a steep-angled shot over Thompson Rivers keeper Deanna Brady.
Just over 15 minutes later, the ’Birds doubled their lead when Shayla Chorney headed a cross from central midfielder Rachel Jones into the back of the net.
Dhanda had the next big chance, latching onto a breakaway pass from Meghan Douglas. It was Brady who won the one-on-one battle with UBC’s striker though, successfully sliding in and grabbing the ball just feet from the goal line.
It didn’t take long for Dhanda to get her redemption, as she blasted a shot past Brady in the 41st minute, after getting on the end of a blocked rebound deep in Thompson River’s box. Assist credit went to Jones, who initiated the first attempt on net just seconds earlier.
Dhanda continued her attacking domination as the second half got underway, turning her way through the Wolfpack’s defence and placing the ball in the back of the net in the 51st minute.
Six minutes later, centre-back-turned-second-half-striker Aman Shergill scored her third goal of the season, as her low shot slipped through Brady’s hands and into the bottom left corner. Dhanda was credited with the assist after a smooth pass across the top of the box to Shergill.
Shergill returned the assist favour just one minute later, sending a pass into Dhanda who placed the ball into the bottom right corner this time. In the 66th, the two combined again as Shergill floated a shot past Brady off a pass from Dhanda yet again.
Dhanda’s final contribution to the match came in the 74th as she once again placed the ball in the bottom corner of the net, just out of reach of the Wolfpack keeper.
With that, the T-Birds capped off their biggest win of the season at 8-0. With five games to go, the team heads into the final stretch of regular season games coming off a huge win at Thunderbird Stadium and with a confidence boost to boot.
“We’re a team that’s really firing on all cylinders right now,” said Symons. “We’re excited to see what October will bring for us.”
The ’Birds will continue their Canada West campaign next week as they play at home against the University of Victoria Vikes at 5 p.m. on Saturday, October 8.
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