Earlier in the summer when the UNBC Timberwolves looked at their depth chart for the 2022 women’s soccer season they had two rookie goalies fresh from high school and there was much uncertainty how they would respond.
Brityn Hinsche of Williams Lake was already a familiar face, having attended the Timberwolves’ camps since she was a Grade 9 student at Lake City Secondary. So was Hannah Stark, a native of Maple Ridge who had been with the team the previous two seasons but didn’t get to play last year with the UNBC crease well-stocked in net with returning veterans.
The situation got complicated in the preseason when Stark hurt her knee and Hinsche tweaked her ankle. That forced fullback Mara McCleary to take over in goal for one game and for their next two exhibition games the T-wolves rounded up a male goalie to do the job stopping shots.
When the season started Sept 3rd, they were down to just one goalie, with no backup. Hinsche was healthy enough to start, but how would she react to facing some of the country’s top university-level shooters?
The 18-year-old answered that question in the first two games of the Canada West season when she allowed just one goal in a 1-0 loss to UBC-Okanagan, then was flawless in a 1-0 shutout win over the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack. Hinsche played the next two games, a win over Winnipeg and a loss to Manitoba, as the only ‘keeper in the UNBC lineup until Brooke Molby made her decision to come back for a fifth season.
Having played all 12 games in 2021, Molby eased into the job as Hinsche’s backup for a pair of road games at MacEwan and Alberta and took back her job Sept. 23 when the T-wolves played host to the undefeated UBC Thunderbirds. UNBC lost that game 2-0 and fell 4-1 later that weekend to Victoria. But they’ve been on a roll ever since to creep into a playoff position and Molby has been a big part of that story.
Molby blanked Fraser Valley 2-0 and stopped seven of eight shots to preserve a 1-1 tie against Trinity Western, then ranked No. 2 in the country. Last weekend at home, the Squamish native helped the T-wolves knock off the U SPORTS 10th-ranked Calgary Dinos 2-1 and was equally brilliant in the rematch on Saturday, stopping all six shots in scoreless draw which kept the T-wolves in the playoff race.
“Brooke coming back was a necessity at first when we had both goalkeepers injured and she’s obviously a great example of leadership in goalkeeping and she’s been so solid for us, as she has for her entire career,” said T-wolves head coach Neil Sedgwick. “She came back just at the right time. She just had a lot in her life taking up her time and a few things changed and he was able to rejoin us.
“Brityn, who played the first six games for us, was absolutely fantastic. For a first-year-player coming up from Williams Lake, where they don’t get a lot of experience in games, she played like a very mature confident goalkeeper. With Hannah now back from injury, it’s a great goalkeeper crew.”
Now ranked fifth in the Pacific Division, the T-wolves (4-5-3) will wrap the regular season at home this weekend with games Friday at Masich Place Stadium against Thompson Rivers (6 p.m. stat) and Sunday (2:15 p.m.) against UBC-Okanagan.
Striker Paige Payne returned after a season off and now leads the T-wolves in scoring with eight goals. McCleary, a Canada West all-star in 2019, was also a surprise returnee after she decided not to play in 2021.
“Paige has been putting the ball in the net, much like Michael Henman with the men’s team, and when you have that it gives you a chance to win or draw games,” said Sedgwick. “Mara at the back is a senior organizer but also fantastic in starting our attacks. We’re fortunate to have them back and everyone has benefitted, and I think they’ve benefitted from the presence of all the other players and the work they’ve put in the last few years to learn the references that we live by.”
The T-wolves midfield has also been getting the job done and Sedgwick singled out the play of Sarah Lepine, Kiana Swift and Kjera Hayman for logging major minutes in games with very little rest.
“How they do it I’m unsure because we play back-to-back games and they’re running 11 to 12 kilometres each day and that’s a tough act for them,” said Sedgwick.
With Camryn Clyne out with a concussion since the Alberta trip and Monika Johnson missing the entire season with a knee injury, homegrown fifth-year Hannah Emmond, second-year Lexy Green and rookie Sidney Elliott have all taken up the slack helping Payne at the striker position.
The top five teams in the division will make postseason and there’s much jostling that could occur before that gets determined. Victoria is currently ranked sixth, behind the T-wolves, despite having the same 4-5-3 record, having already beaten UNBC in their lone head-to-head encounter.
Seventh-place UBC-O (3-6-3) could also make a move into the top-five with a win over Calgary on Friday and a defeat of the T-wolves on Sunday. UNBC could also jump to a better position. The T-wolves are just three points behind third-place Calgary (6-4-2) and trails fourth-place Thompson Rivers (5-5-2) by just two points.
The UNBC women last made the playoffs in 2019.
“We’re extremely excited to be in this spot, the players have done extremely well to represent the program and put themselves in this position going into the final weekend, where there’s five teams within six points of one another,” said Sedgwick.
“We feel like we’ve been in every game, even the ones we’ve lost. Their efforts have put themselves into a great position.”
