Women’s soccer
Last October, for the second consecutive year, the Heat’s season ended in heartbreaking fashion with a loss to the Thompson Rivers WolfPack in the provincial final. The chance to better that result begins in Kelowna this Saturday (Sept. 7th) as the season opens for the Heat women’s soccer team.
The Vancouver Island University Mariners will provide the foe for the opener in what will be the last year in the PACWEST for the footballers from UBC’s Okanagan campus. UBC Okanagan dropped the Mariners 2-0 at home and played to a 1-1 draw in Nanaimo last season.
The opener is scheduled for 1 p.m. at the Nonis Sports Field on UBC’s Okanagan campus.
On Sunday, Sept. 8 the Capilano University Blues will visit Heat at Nonis Sports Field at 12 p.m. The Blues finished at the bottom of the PACWEST standings last year, notching only a single win (1-9-4).
The Heat accounted for two of the Blues four draws last season, playing the North Vancouver squad to a 1-1 draw in Kelowna and at Capilano.
The Heat finished last year with a record of 7-1-6 record, good enough for the second overall in the regular season. The provincial semi-final saw the Heat drop the host Quest Kermodes 4-1 before succumbing to the WolfPack 1-0.
Men’s soccer
After a disappointing 2012 campaign, the Heat have a bitter taste in their mouths heading into 2013. Finishing the 2012 season with a record of 2W-7L-5T was not how the Heat envisioned their season ending up, but one which the team will have to quickly erase from their minds heading into their first game of 2013.
The Heat will kick off the season versus the Vancouver Island University Mariners this Saturday, Sept. 7 in Kelowna. VIU, the second best team in Canada in 2012, has proved a formidable opponent for the Heat over the past few seasons. After a loss to VIU in their first meeting of 2012, the Heat were able to sneak away with a draw in their final meeting, and look to build upon that success in the home opener.
Men’s and women’s golf
The defending national champion in women’s golf—the UBC Okanagan Hea—will have an entirely different look as they attempt to defend their title, and win a fifth straight provincial championship in 2013. Out after graduation are Jen Woods and Alana Kent, the multi-award winning golfers that anchored the woman’s team for the last half-decade, as well as head coach Mike Darnbrough. In are new head coach Cass Hritzuk, as well as new recruits all will look to keep the ball on the fairway for Heat golf.
On the men’s side, both Cody Bell and Will Deck are back and look to repeat their strong performance that led them to the national championships last fall. They too will look to the new coach Hritzuk to bring together the rest of the squad and hopefully capture a team championship for the first time in men’s golf history at UBC Okanagan.
Both the men’s and women’s squad will begin their PACWEST season this weekend with 36 holes at the Morningstar Golf Course in Parksville in a tournament hosted by Vancouver Island University.
