The Trinity Western Spartans are in unfamiliar territory.
For the first time all season, the women’s soccer team is coming off a defeat.
The Spartans fell 3-0 to one of their fiercest rivals, the UBC Thunderbirds.
The two soccer powerhouses squared off on Sunday afternoon at TWU’s Chase Office Field, in the Canada West championship game.
“It is always hard to lose in a championship; harder to lose to a crosstown rival,” said Spartans coach Graham Roxburgh.
“But in the end, we accomplished one of our big goals which was to qualify for nationals.”
The Spartans had gone 13-0-3 during the regular season and first two games of the playoffs — including 1-0-1 against UBC — but fell behind 1-0 in the 26th minute.
It marked the first time all season Trinity Western was playing from behind.
The Spartans had some opportunities but could not capitalize and that proved costly as minutes before half-time, the visitors had doubled their lead.
UBC added a third goal in the 88th minute.
The three goals allowed were half the amount the Spartans allowed in their previous 16 games.
“We lost to a good team yesterday; (UBC) played well and we didn’t play as sharp as we could have,” Roxburgh said.
“We didn’t take our chances and that is probably where the game got away from us.”
The Spartans did however, qualify for nationals, which begin Thursday (Nov. 10) and run through Sunday at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia.
TWU is seeded sixth in the eight-team tournament and opens against the Ontario University Association champion University of Ontario Institute of Technology in the quarter-finals. The game will be played at 10:30 a.m. (PST).
“We are honoured to be there and it will be a chance for us to kind of put some things right,” Roxburgh said.
“Anytime you are three games away from winning it all, that is a great thing. But we will keep taking it one game at a time.
“We are just going to have to eliminate some really small mistakes, stay focused but also stay positive.”
See also: Spartans Roxburgh named Canada West coach of the year