The UBC Thunderbirds advanced to the Canada West Women’s Rugby Championship gold-medal game with an 81-7 win over the Calgary Dinos at McMahon Stadium on Thursday.
UBC jumped out to a big lead early in the conference semifinal, carrying a 38-0 edge at halftime before coasting down the stretch into Sunday’s final.
Willow Beyea scored Calgary’s try in the 75th minute after a battle on the try line. Ashley Parkson completed the conversion.
“The scoreline didn’t indicate the effort of our team today,” Dinos head coach Simon Chi said. “On top of that, there was a lot of growth in terms of a lot of things we wanted to accomplish. We were able to retain the ball for long stretches and gain territory.
“Certainly, we still have work to do before Sunday in terms of our counter-attack and tightening our defence, but retaining the ball and gaining territory is something we see as growth, and we want to build on that.”
The Dinos will host Lethbridge in the bronze-medal match on Sunday (3 p.m.).
In the other semi at McMahon, the Pronghorns fell 36-10 to the Victoria Vikes, who will face UBC for gold after the bronze-medal match.
Women’s Soccer
It’s a big weekend for the Dinos women’s soccer team, which has a chance at claiming the top spot in the Prairie Division with the two final games of the regular season at home. It all starts Saturday when Alberta comes to campus before MacEwan follows suit Sunday. Both games will kick off at noon at Dinosaur Field.
Calgary heads into the weekend with a 10-1-1 conference record, good for 31 points. While the Dinos know they have clinched a top-two spot in the Canada West Prairie Division and at least one home playoff game, they can claim the division crown. MacEwan sits in second place heading into the weekend with 29 points and will play Lethbridge on Saturday before Sunday’s showdown.
The Dinos and Griffins battled up in Edmonton over a month ago in a game that saw Calgary dominate the game but win a tight one, 3-2, with some late fireworks. Saturday’s Battle of Alberta will also be a rematch from earlier this season, as the Pandas are the lone team defeat the Dinos in conference play so far this year.
Saturday’s game will also serve as the annual Pink Out game for the Dinos, while Sunday’s contest is also Seniors’ Day.
Men’s Soccer
While the Dinos know they can’t quite finish atop the Canada West Prairie Division standings, there is still plenty to play for heading into the final weekend. Calgary sits in second place in the divisional standings based on win percentage (.639). They will look to hold off Mount Royal, which enters the final two games with a .556 win percentage. Meanwhile, Lethbridge, Saskatchewan and MacEwan are all battling for the fourth and final spot in the Prairie Division.
Calgary opened the conference season against the Huskies, showing off their new style under first-year head coach Ramon Mifflin with an exciting 3-0 win. The Dinos will look for a different result in the rematch with the ‘Horns, however, as Lethbridge set a physical style right from the start of the 0-0 draw back on Aug. 25.
Football
The Dinos picked up a much-needed win last time out, as Vince Triumbari kicked the game-winning field goal 1:03 left on the clock for a 23-20 win at Regina back on Oct. 5. That win moved Calgary to 2-4 on the year and into a three-way tie with Alberta and Regina for the fourth and final playoff spot with two weeks left to play.
Up next is a rematch with UBC – a team the Scarlet & Gold battled just 20 days prior to Friday night’s contest. In that one, the teams exchanged the lead five times that finished with the T-Birds kicking a game-winning field goal with just 59 seconds left for a 32-30 win in McMahon Stadium.
After starting the season with back-to-back losses, UBC enters the weekend on a four-game win streak and sits at 4-2. Despite the winning record, the Thunderbirds have a minus-nine point differential on the season, somehow lower than Calgary’s (minus two), which demonstrates just how close the entire Canada West conference has been all season, thus far.
Men’s Volleyball
Calgary is looking to bounce back following a 7-17 finish to conference play a season ago for 10th place in the Canada West standings. The vast majority of last year’s squad returns, though roles might look a little different under Vigrass. The 2012 graduate that helped the Dinos to a national title in 2010 also has a number of talented newcomers joining this year’s ranks, including local standout Cole Czepuryk and Emil Olsen, a first-year libero from Bergen, Norway.
The Dinos — picked to finish eighth in this year’s preseason coaches’ poll — open things up against Manitoba. Calgary has had the Bisons’ number in recent years, winning five of the last six, though the two teams did split their doubleheader last season in Winnipeg.
Women’s Volleyball
Head coach Christine Biggs enters her fourth season leading the way for the Scarlet & Gold. A season ago, she led the Dinos to a 9-15 conference record — just missing a playoff berth in the top conference in the country. This season, Calgary will sport a number of new faces, as six newcomers join the squad.
Manitoba enters the year after claiming its first Canada West crown in program history last March. The Bisons are repeat favorites in this year’s preseason poll, though the Dinos have had their number over the last decade as Calgary has won 14 of the last 16 dating back to the 2014-15 season. The two teams split the most recent head-to-head, a weekend set back in February 2023.
Wrestling
Wrestling season also gets underway this weekend for the Dinos, hosting a pair of meets inside the Red Gym. Friday’s head-to-head with Alberta is set for a 6 p.m. start time, while Saturday’s invitational is scheduled to get underway at 9 a.m. and run the majority of the day.
Calgary is coming off its latest CW conference title on the women’s side last year, adding their 12th banner over the last 24 seasons. It should be another exciting season for the women’s squad, with eight of the 10 athletes who competed at last year’s conference meet for the Scarlet & Gold back and ready to hit the mats once again.
On the men’s side, Nicholas Hooper returns following an incredible start to his university career that saw him named both the U SPORTS and Canada West Rookie of the Year after bringing home the first individual national title on the men’s side since 2008.
The Dinos are once again led by head coach Mitch Ostberg, who enters his 32nd season in the Scarlet & Gold.
Men’s Hockey
After a hard-luck weekend the saw the Dinos go from 2-0 to 2-1-1 following a pair of losses (one in a lengthy shootout that went eight rounds), Calgary’s men’s hockey team will look to bounce back in yet another heavyweight showdown with a home-and-home against Mount Royal. The Dinos renew the cross-town rivalry with Mount Royal at Flames Community Arenas on Friday before MRU comes to campus Saturday for a 7 p.m. puck drop inside Father David Bauer Arena.
The Dinos dropped from No. 4 to No. 9 in this week’s U SPORTS top 10 rankings. For the second straight week, Calgary will go up against a fellow ranking program as Mount Royal enters ranked third.
Calgary head coach Mark Howell has seen his team hit by the injury bug early on this year, with four players missing last week’s action with various ailments.
This weekend’s series is not only the first of the year in the annual Crowchild Classic, but also a playoff rematch from last year’s Canada West Semifinal. In that one, Calgary won the opener, 4-2, before Colson Gengenbach scored 3:42 into overtime of Game 2 send the Dinos to the conference final.
Gengenbach is already the early leader for the Dinos in both goals (four) and points (seven), ranking him second in the conference in both categories in the early going, as well.
Women’s Hockey
The Crowchild Classic renews this weekend for the Dinos women’s hockey team, as well, starting Friday at Father David Bauer Arena at 7 p.m. before a 5 p.m. game Saturday across town at the Flames Community Arenas.
Calgary heads into the weekend at 2-1-1 following a road sweep of Saskatchewan. The Dinos outscored the Huskies by a combined 7-2 over the weekend, headlined by newcomer Brookyln Anderson’s hat trick in the finale. Anderson now has the early national lead with five goals through her team’s first four games.
Last year, the two teams split the annual rivalry series, 2-2. MRU claimed the first two in early October before the Dinos posted a pair of two-goal wins in late January — the headliner being the 2-0 shutout win inside the Saddledome in front of more than 10,000 fans.