The Thunderbirds offense pitched a perfect game to exorcise the ghosts of semifinals past and return to the final for the first time in over a decade
May 26, 2025 by Bridget Mizener in Recap
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BURLINGTON, WA — No matter who won this afternoon, a demon was getting exorcised. From the moment the first pull went up, British Columbia was determined to make it theirs. In a wire-to-wire rout, #4 UBC Thunderbirds dismantled #5 Vermont Ruckus 15-5, opening the game with a five-break avalanche and never looking back. They looked nigh unstoppable and have earned odds-on favorites status tomorrow as they play for a title for the first time since 2008.
The Thunderbirds capitalized on early Vermont miscues and turned the screws on the Ruckus offense from the jump. Stifled by a feisty Lauren Szeto-Fung, Bryelle Wong’s shiftiness and a transcendent Mika Kurahashi, Vermont didn’t score until they had already coughed up four breaks and never found a foothold — UBC’s defense scored on nearly every opportunity, and their offense was flawless, never giving Vermont a chance to claw back. The second half offered little reprieve. UBC’s complete performance — lethal defense, disciplined offense, and unrelenting intensity — leaves them looking like the most dangerous team in the country heading into Monday’s final.
In the lead-up to the game, the crushing weight of recent late-bracket heartbreaks had to be top of mind for both programs.
The inexperience of a Ruckus squad new to the division’s upper ranks shone through in 2023 as they got flattened under the lights by the UNC juggernaut. The next year, it seemed all but assured that a more experienced iteration would roll to the final to do battle with North Carolina once again, but a gut-wrenching end to that semifinal stopped them in their tracks. UBC, similarly, is also no stranger to disappointment in recent seasons — two years in a row, top-four Thunderbirds teams failed to hold seed at Nationals, suffering one painful underperformance under the lights in Ohio and last year’s pool play upset, which preluded their demise against this very Vermont team last year.
This time, it took just three throws for the Thunderbirds to seize control — or more accurately, for Vermont to hand them the keys. After the opening UBC hold, a miscommunication between Caroline Stone and Meribel Collin on the third pass of Ruckus’ opening O-point gave UBC a short field, and the Thunderbird defense turned on the jets. Wong accelerated upline, a Kurahashi flick from the trap cone centered the disc for Szeto-Fung, and she flipped the first break in to Amelie Marshall.
From there, the breaks flashed by in an unrelenting montage. Kurahashi accelerated for a sneaky block. Wong blazed past a flat-footed receiver. A narrow upline look sailed long. And each time, the point ended in shades of the same: Kurahashi with both hands raised and a wide smile on her face, or Marshall engulfed by teammates. Vermont had completed just 12 passes and were peering up from the bottom of a 5-0 hole.
Ruckus tried to stop the bleeding, calling timeout to regroup and sending different personnel groupings out. Nothing mattered. The result was the same: UBC’s top defensive unit ran circles around them, radiating confidence.
Finally, the UBC D-line — perfect so far — relented and gave the Vermont offense more than one chance. Ruckus took advantage of the short field chance to get on the board — a soaring backhand from Stone found Ella Monaghan in stride — but it did little to shift the momentum. Vermont’s offense, typically so assertive, simply could not find purchase. They kept trying looks that seemed open, only for UBC defenders to flash into the lane or in front of the receiver.
Strategically as well as on-field, the Thunderbirds remained ruthless nearly the length of the match. Up 7-1, the Thunderbirds sent out yet another kill line.1 Kurahashi notched yet another block, and just 25 minutes into the game, UBC took half 8-1. Vermont coach Liz Leon was diplomatic in the halftime interview: “I’m seeing us have a little bit of nerves, if I’m being perfectly honest.”
Though the Thunderbirds weren’t immune to nerves themselves — “I was really nervous coming into this game, and I wasn’t sure what to expect,” admitted Szeto-Fung — they didn’t show it. Szeto-Fung (1A/1G/1D) was dogged in her game-long harassment of Stone. Wong (3A/3D) was electric, the sharp point of a relentless UBC spear. She shook defenders out of their cleats and navigated the red zone as if guided by homing beacon. Marshall (5G) owned the end zone. But as is usually the case when the Thunderbirds take the field, it was Kurahashi (3G/5A/2D) who was absolutely undeniable. The UBC D-line broke on every point she played. She looked untouchable — otherworldly — as if the disc was magnetized to her presence. Defensively it was drawn into her orbit, and on offense it just couldn’t help but find her in the end zone. She was probably the POTY frontrunner going into this game, but she’s in a league of her own now.
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When UBC finally rotated defensive reserves in midway through the second half, Vermont did punch in a handful of holds. The two clean ones they managed were no doubt an important moral victory. But Ruckus would never threaten the UBC lead. On defense, they tried zone. They tried matchup changes. They threw everything they had at the Thunderbirds — none of it mattered. The UBC offense, which looked vulnerable at times earlier in the weekend, literally pitched a perfect game. And on the other side, their defense didn’t just smother Vermont’s fire — they made sure it never had a chance to spark.
This game aside, there’s plenty to be positive about for a young Ruckus team whose evolution from February to now is so dramatic, it’s practically two different teams. And though they’ll lose their veteran leader and emotional rock in Emily Pozzy (1A/1D), as well as the guiding presence of Leon, Ruckus will get the vast majority of the team back next year. Stone (5A/1D) has come into her own as one of the division’s premier throwers, and coach Sara Jacobi was effusive about Ruckus’s platoon of young talent — Tatum Cubrilovic, Annie Pozzy, Monaghan, Isabelle Alfano, Willa Morales — which acquitted themselves well this weekend and will be a year older and wiser next spring.
When — who else — Kurahashi arced the final goal in to Ella Bolan, it was jubilation from the Thunderbirds. The sideline mobbed her as the raucous Canadian sideline presence roared. The whole thing took an hour flat. From the outside, it might look like another chalky result, but for a program that’s tasted this opportunity often but failed to capture it, a win like this is sweet relief, no matter their seed.
The 15-6 scoreline is the largest margin of semifinal victory in the division in nearly a decade, but even numbers like that fail to capture how dominant the Thunderbirds look. If both UBC units play like this tomorrow, it’s hard to see how any team stops them. Tune into the final, tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. PT on ESPNU, to find out if anyone can.
Despite the cushion, the defensive reserves didn’t see the field until 10-1. ↩
