{"id":946456,"date":"2026-10-26T03:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T03:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/946456\/"},"modified":"2026-10-26T03:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T03:32:12","slug":"t-birds-defeated-by-vikes-in-canada-west-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/946456\/","title":{"rendered":"T-Birds defeated by Vikes in Canada West Final"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n                    &#13;<br \/>\n                        Story Links&#13;<br \/>\n                        &#13;<\/p>\n<p>VICTORIA \u2013 In what&#8217;s become a very familiar pairing in recent years, the Thunderbirds and Vikes faced off in the Canada West Final on Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately for the T-Birds, they were forced to settle for silver for the second season in a row as the Vikes held serve on their home turf.<\/p>\n<p>Standout rookie <a href=\"https:\/\/gothunderbirds.ca\/sports\/womens-rugby\/roster\/teniola-epemolu\/13107\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"13107\" target=\"_blank\">Teniola Epemolu<\/a> scored both of UBC&#8217;s tries on the day, one in each half, but they came amongst a wave of UVic points that allowed the home team to win comfortably in the end.<\/p>\n<p>Larah Wright was the high-scorer on the day for the Vikes with three tries, and got her first in the eighth minute to open the scoring. After an Olivia Newsome penalty kick made it 10-0, the T-Birds responded in the 20th minute. They did so off a quick restart following a UVic penalty, with <a href=\"https:\/\/gothunderbirds.ca\/sports\/womens-rugby\/roster\/adia-pye\/12465\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"12465\" target=\"_blank\">Adia Pye<\/a> dishing a sweet pass to Epemolu on the outside who dove in for the try.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Teniola Epemolu races past a couple of defenders who can't stop her\" height=\"1080\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/DSC01405.jpg\" style=\"display: inline-block;\" width=\"1920\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The Vikes were undeterred, however, and scored three more tries before the half was out (two of them from Wright) to take a 29-5 lead into the break.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Epemolu&#8217;s second try came in the 64th, when she picked up a bouncing ball following a scrum and immediately barrelled straight through the heart of the Victoria defence, gouging her way forward for the score.<\/p>\n<p>That was as much offence as UBC could muster, however, and a pair of second half tries each from Piper Walsh and Krissy Scurfield on the other side of the ball helped the match end with a 67-12 final score.<\/p>\n<p>The Thunderbirds will now turn their attention to defending their national championship title, as they head to Guelph in two weeks&#8217; time to face off against the best in the country at the 2026 U SPORTS Women&#8217;s Rugby Championship.<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>SCORING SUMMARY<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t&#13;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">1<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t&#13;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">2<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t&#13;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">F<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t&#13;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">VIC<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t&#13;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">29<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t&#13;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">38<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t&#13;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">67<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t&#13;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">UBC<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t&#13;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">5<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t&#13;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">7<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t&#13;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">12<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t&#13;<\/p>\n<p>8&#8242; VIC Try &#8211; #8 Larah Wright, conversion #15 Olivia Newsome, 7-0 VIC<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n18&#8242; VIC Penalty Kick &#8211; #15 Olivia Newsome, 10-0 VIC<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n20&#8242; UBC Try &#8211; #14 <a href=\"https:\/\/gothunderbirds.ca\/sports\/womens-rugby\/roster\/teniola-epemolu\/13107\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"13107\" target=\"_blank\">Teniola Epemolu<\/a>, conversion missed, 10-5 VIC<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n23&#8242; VIC Try &#8211; #2 Kendra Cousineau, conversion #15 Olivia Newsome, 17-5 VIC<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n31&#8242; VIC Try &#8211; #8 Larah Wright, conversion #15 Olivia Newsome, 24-5 VIC<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n37&#8242; VIC Try &#8211; #8 Larah Wright, conversion missed, 29-5 VIC<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nHALF<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n41&#8242; VIC Try &#8211; #13 Maddy Grant, conversion missed, 34-5 VIC<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n49&#8242; VIC Try &#8211; #5 Piper Walsh, conversion #12 Maggie MacKinnon, 41-5 VIC<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n64&#8242; UBC Try &#8211; #14 <a href=\"https:\/\/gothunderbirds.ca\/sports\/womens-rugby\/roster\/teniola-epemolu\/13107\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"13107\" target=\"_blank\">Teniola Epemolu<\/a>, conversion #10 <a href=\"https:\/\/gothunderbirds.ca\/sports\/womens-rugby\/roster\/sarah-macpherson\/12460\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"12460\" target=\"_blank\">Sarah MacPherson<\/a>, 41-12 VIC<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n69&#8242; VIC Try &#8211; #5 Piper Walsh, conversion #16 Remee Brown, 48-12 VIC<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n71&#8242; VIC Try &#8211; #22 Emilie Brett, conversion missed, 53-12 VIC<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n77&#8242; VIC Try &#8211; #11 Krissy Scurfield, conversion #11 Krissy Scurfield, 60-12 VIC<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n80&#8242; VIC Try &#8211; #11 Krissy Scurfield, conversion #11 Krissy Scurfield, 67-12 VIC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; Story Links&#13; &#13; VICTORIA \u2013 In what&#8217;s become a very familiar pairing in recent years, the Thunderbirds&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":946457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,44],"class_list":["post-946456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=946456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/946457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=946456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=946456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=946456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}