UNBC women kicking for real in Kelowna
The real season begins today for the UNBC Timberwolves women’s soccer team.
UNBC kicks off the U Sports Canada West season this afternoon against the UBC Okanagan Heat in Kelowna, then has a Sunday date in Kamloops with the Thompson Rivers WolfPack.
The Timberwolves are coming off a 3-7-4 season in which they made the Canada West playoffs for the first time in their six-year university soccer history. Considering they’re one of the youngest teams in the league, the T-wolves will be hard-pressed to repeat as postseason contestants in Year 7.
They have just two fifth-year players, defender Kylie Erb and midfielder Madison Emmond; one fourth-year veteran, midfielder Julia Babicz; and three third-years, midfielder Paige Payne, and defenders Ashley Volk and Mara McCleary.
“We made the playoffs with a very senior team, and it’s a bit different story this year,” said head coach Neil Sedgwick, entering his third season behind the T-wolves bench.
“But it’s an exciting group because there’s a lot of young enthusiastic players that have grown over the past year. They’ve come into the program and have created a fantastic culture of supporting one another and challenging one another and we’re excited to see where that will go during the season.”
Sedgwick saw plenty of encouraging signs in the preseason from his players and is confident this year’s group will avoid some of the pitfalls which led to a winless 0-12-1 season in 2017, Sedgwick’s first year at UNBC.
“We have more diversity than we’ve had in the past,” he said. “We have players who can control the game and slow things down and we have a number of players who can play it fast and change the look of the game.
“You need to defend well from the beginning. We (emphasize) that with every team. That’s the piece that takes you a long way and is the foundation of your growth throughout the season. We have a little more pace up front because we’ve been able to move players around to those (forward) position, plus we have some good depth at midfield and good experience in the centre midfield with both our first-year players an our returners.”
UNBC has six first-year players and 10 second-years, including forward Sofia Jones, who scored 17 goals last season playing for a junior college team in San Francisco. Jones also has college experience as defender.
The T-wolves will lean heavily on their two second-year goalies, Madi Doyle and Brooke Molby. Both played enough last year to get a good taste for the high-calibre shooters they will encounter in the Canada West conference.
“They’ve grown quite a bit over the last year and they continue to get better,” said Sedgwick. “They’re highly-motivated and they work well together. They push one another and challenge one another and support one another like two goalkeepers I’ve never seen before. They’ll be strong this year.”
The Timberwolves have had a few practices at their new home at Masich Place Stadium and will get their chance to play there for the first time on Friday against Regina.
Today’s game in Kelowna starts at 1 p.m.
“We’ve been training since the end of July, and I think we are all ready to go,” said Volk.
“We have had a lot of games this preseason, which is fortunate. We need to play our game, first and foremost. It’s important to keep calm, even though it is the first game of the season. UBCO plays a very similar game to us. They will try to keep control of the play, just like we do. They have a lot of technical players, so we will have to use our tactics and press in order to play around them and through them.
“I think it is super-important to start the season off on a positive note. It would be great to have a good outcome in both these games, so we can progress through the season and feel confident in our playing style and our ability – just build on what we started last year.”