Brittney Zacharuk and the Cascades fell to UBC on Friday.
The UBC Thunderbirds’ fifth-year forward duo of Jasmin Dhanda and Aman Shergill was tough on the University of the Fraser Valley women’s soccer team on Friday evening, sparking the T-Birds to a 3-0 win.
Dhanda opened the scoring in the first minute of play at Thunderbird Stadium, becoming the all-time leading scorer in Canada West history in the process. Shergill added a pair of second-half tallies.
Both the Cascades (4-5-4) and T-Birds (8-2-3) are playoff-bound heading into the final day of the regular season. UFV closes its conference schedule with a Saturday road game vs. the Victoria Vikes (5 p.m., CanadaWest.tv).
“It was a challenging game, and it’s a great learning opportunity for us,” Cascades head coach Rob Giesbrecht said. “UBC is a successful team right now – they’re a team that’s going to challenge for a national title, and we saw why. They have veteran players impacting the game.
“When we played with confidence, we were able to be successful and cause our opponent problems. We need to find a way to play more confidently for 90 minutes. That’s what we’re going to strive to do tomorrow.”
UBC, the U SPORTS champion in 2015 and the national silver medalist in 2016, got on the board early when Dhanda found some space and chipped the ball over Cascades keeper Emily Harold.
Shergill hit the post in the 39th minute, but hit the scoresheet in the 55th after being taken down in the box. She stepped to the penalty spot and fired home a shot into the top right.
UFV midfielder Brittney Zacharuk stayed busy throughout the night, putting in a tough shift of box-to-box work. Her in-swinging corner kick in the 65th minute found teammates in the box, almost leading to the Cascades’ first goal of the game, but the ball was cleared by the Thunderbirds.
UBC tallied its third goal of the night on a powerful shot by Shergill inside the box, assisted by Danielle Steer in the 71st.
Standout sophomore right back Kelsey Mitchell was UFV’s player of the game, and Giesbrecht was pleased with the contributions he got off the bench from Avneet Bhullar, Mackenzie Toop and Lexie Gillette.
– with files from UBC Athletics
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