The season is over for the UNBC Timberwolves women's soccer team.
It ended Friday afternoon in a 2-1 loss to the University of Manitoba Bisons in a U Sports Canada West playoff on a windy day Calgary.
Nicole Davis scored the winner in the 70th minute, her second of the game, and the Bisons survived sustained pressure in their own end of the field the rest of the game to seal the win.
On the winning goal, T-wolves goalie Brooke Molby ran out of her crease and got her hands up to partially deflect Davis's shot but it rolled in behind Molby into the net.
That came a few minutes after T-wolves fullback Mara McCleary nailed the crossbar on a free kick in the 64th minute and UNBC striker Paige Payne was denied from 20 yards out by a diving save from Bisons' goalie Alexis Anderson in the 67th minute.
UNBC defender Julia Babicz admitted the gale-force winds that gusted to 80 km per hour during the game gave her team a lot of trouble. The T-wolves were outshot 7-1 in the first half when the Bisons had the wind at their backs but UNBC reversed the tend in the second half, building up an 8-5 shot advantage.
"Honestly, I've never played in a situation that windy before, it was definitely a difference-maker, at least in the first half," said Babicz. "So we had to keep all the balls in the ground, which for our back line is not usually our normal way of doing it. Especially our throw-ins, we had to adjust. I like to throw it in to the strikers so they can get their head on it but the wind was so strong, even from a short distance it would change and come right back to me."
Davis opened the scoring at the 36:30 mark of the first half and Paige Payne tied it for UNBC four minutes later.
Molby was the busier of the two goalies while making eight saves. Anderson came up with five stops guarding the Bison goal.
For Babicz and two other T-wolves veterans - third-year defender Ashley Volk and second year- midfielder Jenna Wild - Friday's game was the last of their U Sports Canada West careers.
"It was a tough game and I'm very proud of my girls, we finished strong all the way to the end and we didn't give up," said the 22-year-old Babicz. "I couldn't be more proud of them."
Manitoba, now 9-5-1, will advance to a quarterfinal matchup Sunday afternoon against the Calgary Dinos, who finished second in the Pacific with a 10-1-3 record. A year ago in the Canada West playoffs the T-wolves ended Manitoba's season with a shootout victory.
UNBC locked up the sixth and final playoff spot in the Pacific Division and with their playoff loss ended up 3-8-4. They have the potential to retain most of their roster for 2020 knowing next year it will be even tougher to make the Canada West postseason.
"We've had a lot of positives, a lot of growth and that's three years in a row we've managed to get to the playoffs and we know next year we'll have to be better when the playoff structure changes a little bit," said T-wolves head coach Neil Sedgwick. "They'll drop it to five (playoff teams in each division) so we know we have some work to do during the off-season to come back ready for next year."
