The Thompson Rivers University WolfPack and the University of British Columbia Okanagan Heat have had a long rivalry in a number of sports.
The two schools will renew that rivalry and the battle for the President’s Cup — Thursday night in Kelowna at 5 p.m.
The ‘Pack women’s soccer team will travel to Kelowna to face the Heat in the first of a Canada West home-and-home series. It will culminate Saturday afternoon (Oct 7) at Hillside Stadium in Kamloops at 2 p.m.
Both teams are in a rebuilding mode in the Pacific Division. Thompson Rivers has a 1-7 record while UBCO is 0-6-2.
The President’s Cup is a competition between the schools in volleyball, basketball and soccer. Last season, UBCO won the women’s cup while TRU took the men.
“They are also our closest competitors right now in the standings so the girls know the importance of these two games both to our long term development and the current standings,” said WolfPack head coach Kelly Shantz, adding there is extra excitement playing their close rival.
Shantz said it will be interesting how the teams match up.
“They are well coached and like to possess the ball, we try to play at a higher tempo and change things up along the way. UBCO has been really solid defensively and they are very experienced back there while we are still moving players around and have several injuries to deal with and are looking for the real combination. Offensively, both teams struggle to score goals, so I don’t think it will be high scoring.”
The WolfPack feature Pinnacles FC alum Marisa Mendonca and Jollee Perrier.