It was a BC 1-2-3 in the 2025 Canada West Women’s Rugby 7s Championships as UBC Thunderbirds rallied to its third-straight title, with UVIC Vikes taking silver and Trinity West Spartans celebrating its first ever CW Women’s Rugby 7s medal after picking up bronze.
The Thunderbirds remained unbeaten throughout the 2025 season, finishing with a 5-0 record at Stop 3 in Langley to claim top spot and take home a third successive Championship.
You can read recaps from all stops on the 2025 Canada West Women’s Rugby 7s Championship below.
Photos courtesy of Mark Janzen/TWU
STOP 3: LANGLEY
Report by UBC Thunderbirds
The UBC Thunderbirds finished the final Women’s Rugby 7s tournament of the year with a 5-0 record to go unbeaten in over the entire 2025 season, winning their third straight Canada West championship.
“It’s pretty special to be undefeated,” said Thunderbirds head coach Darcy Patterson. “The ‘Birds put in a lot of work over the season to prepare for that, and that was our goal, and we achieved it, so it was pretty special…Three [titles in a row] is great. And growing the game of sevens is even better.”
The Thunderbirds capped off their perfect campaign with a hard-fought 24-19 win over the Victoria Vikes at Willoughby Stadium at the Langley Events Centre. It was an interesting day of matches on the rain-soaked pitch as only that final battle did not end in a shutout win for the victorious team.
UVic finished 1-1 on the day to take home second place and a Canada West silver medal, while the Trinity Western Spartans also split their matches on the day to finish the tournament at 3-2 and took home their first ever Canada West women’s rugby medal with bronze.
Leading the scoring on the second day were UBC’s Adia Pye with four tries for 20 points, and Skye Farish with two tries and three conversions for 16 points. Pye led the entire weekend in scoring with nine tries, with Farish compiling three tries and nine conversions overall.
The T-Birds started their day with a 41-0 victory over Lethbridge, which began with back-to-back tries from Pye. Farish, Mary Sieker, Rachel Smith and Brooklyn Roddham all landed scores of their own as the blue and gold cruised to victory.
The final match of the tournament was much more even, as the Thunderbirds and Vikes traded tries in the first half. A missed UVic convert meant the score was 14-12 in favour of the T-Birds at the break, before the Vikes took the lead in the second period of action with their third try.
With the perfect record on the line, Pye came up clutch for her team. The UBC star scored consecutive tries for the final scores of the Canada West season, helping the T-Birds to their 15th win at 24-19.
“The win was awesome, but it was really great to see the level of play rise for the third tournament,” added Patterson. “And it was really good to have a really solid game against UVic in the final.”
The championship banner caps a fantastic six months for the UBC Women’s Rugby program, which captured both the Canada West and U SPORTS 15s championships in the fall before taking the 7s title this weekend.
The momentum should only continue to build in 2025-26, as UBC plays host to the 2025 U SPORTS Women’s Rugby Championship from October 29th to November 2nd at Thunderbird Stadium.
STOP 2: VICTORIA
Report by UVIC
The University of British Columbia Thunderbirds posted two wins on day two of the Victoria stop of the Canada West 7s series to go 5-0 and win the tournament.
The Thunderbirds finished 5-0 to capture the tournament title, followed by the host Vikes at 4-1. Trinity Western ended the weekend with a 3-2 clip, while Lethbridge earned its first wins of the weekend on day one and finished at 2-3 overall. Calgary and Alberta rounded out the field, with the Dinos grabbing a win on day two to end at 1-4, and the Pandas at 0-5.
“It was great to see the quality of play raise up across all the teams compared to the last tournament,” noted Vikes head coach Brittany Waters on the weekend. “There were some quality games across the board, and you could see all the hard work teams have been putting in between the first tournament and now. I’m excited to see what the teams bring to the final stop.”
UBC’s Adia Pye recorded five tries on day two to lead the field, finishing the weekend with six overall to tie Victoria’s Olivia Newsome for most over the tournament. Newsome added five converts on the weekend to tie with UBC’s Lana Dueck and Lethbridge’s Kayleigh Noel for the tournament high.
Calgary earned their first win of the weekend on the second day of play, taking down rivals Alberta, 26-5, using tries from Sofia Brussoni, Maori de Jesus-Gilhula, and Melody Kivia, in the first half and a try from Bomi Lawal in the second half to secure the win.
Trinity Western rounded out the winning teams on day two of the tournament, using two tries from Kelsa Kempf, one from Hannah Hibbs, and one from Ava Van Santen to take a 24-10 win over Calgary.
STOP 1: EDMONTON
Report by Aly Anderson, UofA Athletics
For the third time in eight seasons, the UBC Thunderbirds opened the Canada West Rugby 7s series claiming the top spot at the UofA Tournament following two grueling days of competition inside the Dome at Foote Field.
It is the second UofA tournament win in three years for the T-Birds, who also won in 2023 and 2019. This year was led by sophomore Adia Pye, who not only recorded a try in every match played but also led the tournament in tries with eight. Pye’s two critical first-half tries in their 12-5 victory over Victoria helped solidify the team’s 5-0 record.
With their highest finish since joining the 7s series, the Trinity Western Spartans impressed with a 4-1 record to place second. Their hard-fought 12-10 victory over the host Alberta Pandas was a standout, highlighted by Ava Van Santen’s centre-field break to place the ball between the post in the first half, which proved to be the difference maker. Van Santen finished the weekend with five tries, four of which came in two matches on Sunday.
Trailing TWU 12-5, Pandas rookie Riley Reid touched the ball down along the sideline in the final seconds, however the convert attempt to tie the game came up, ending the game.
With both teams looking not to leave empty-handed, the Calgary Dinos and Lethbridge Pronghorns left everything on the turf in a match-up full of line breaks and heavy hits. Despite a two-try effort from second-year Zina Umeh, bringing her weekend total to five on the weekend, the Pronghorns would fall to the Dinos, 21-10.
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