After a pair of wins last weekend to start the season the UNBC women sit all alone atop the U Sports Canada West Pacific Division standings, heading into a battle of the unbeatens with the Prairie Division-leading University of Saskatchewan Huskies.
The T-wolves will travel to Saskatoon to play the Huskies Saturday afternoon, then head to Regina to face the Cougars on Sunday.
The hot feet of third-year striker Sofia Jones have spiced the T-wolves' attack and her two-goal, one assist weekend shot UNBC into first place. Jones scored two goals in a 3-0 win Saturday over the UBC-Okanagan Heat of Kelowna and also factored in the scoring in their opening 1-0 triumph Thursday at Masich Place Stadium over the Thompson Rivers University WolfPack of Kamloops. Paige Payne had the only goal, set up by a pass from Jones, a San Francisco native in her second season at UNBC.
Earlier this week, Jones received recognition of her outstanding efforts when she was named winner of the Canada West Conference third star of the week award.
Since UNBC joined U Sports/CIS in 2012, the T-wolves women's soccer team has never opened a season winning its first two games.
"The first two games went well, it was a good start for the girls, they're happy," said T-wolves head coach Neil Sedgwick. "It was a great weekend for Sofia and the team. The whole group works so well together and they complement one another. I'm excited all the time to watch how in sync they are when the whole group is on the field, not just in games but in training as well."
Although they outshot the WolfPack 18-8 and had 10 shots on goal compared to their opponents' six, Sedgwick said the outcome could have gone either way and his team could not afford to let off the gas, which was a lesson learned for the T-wolves.
"(The WolfPack) competed right to the end, they're a tough team to play against," said Sedgwick. "I'm incredibly proud of our girls because they recognized we were still in a 1-nil game and right to the end they tackled where they needed to tackle and headed the ball where they needed to head it away and limited TRU's chances.
"UBC-O is such a well-organized team and incredibly competitive and I'm really happy the way the team stuck to the gameplan for 90 minutes. We were fortunate to score early and we had a bit of an advantage and were able to get a couple in a quick sequence that kind of put the game out of reach, but it was really an even game."
Last season the T-wolves (3-8-3) finished sixth in the Pacific Division and went on to win the first playoff game in team history, beating Manitoba in Winnipeg, before eventually falling to the UBC Thunderbirds in the second round.
This year's team has just one fifth-year player, defender Julia Babicz, but have three players in their fourth season including Payne (a Canada West second-team all-star in 2018), Ashley Volk and Mara McCleary. They're surrounded by a cast of six third-year veterans, including goalies Madison Doyle and Brooke Molby, seven second-year players and seven U Sports rookies.
"Everyone's doing their part and I think that's the togetherness that gave up our success last year and we hope it does the same this year," said Sedgwick.
