Top 5 BC Sports Stories This Weekend: Lions Advance, Whitecaps Clinch West, UBC Star Shines in New York
It was a busy weekend on the football and soccer fields, and a fast one on the courses for Victoria's cross-country athletes in Calgary and UBC's Sam Hendry in New York.
BC's Halloween weekend in sports didn't bring many scary moments; instead, it delivered plenty of success across the province and internationally.
On the soccer pitch, university teams experienced immense success, setting up a BC-heavy final two weeks of the season, while the professional scene saw the Vancouver Whitecaps clinch first place in the Western Conference. The only true setback was the Vancouver Rise’s 3-0 loss to the Montreal Roses in the Northern Super League semifinal.
There was plenty more, though, including the BC Lions’ miraculous playoff win, an impressive BC performance at the New York Marathon, and a gold medal for the Canadian figure skating pair of Lia Pereira and Trennt Michaud, who claimed the pairs title at the Skate Canada International event in Kelowna.
Here, Sports Page BC dives into the biggest weekend storylines you may have missed.
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View post ↗BC Lions Into West Final
The BC Lions are into the West Final, keeping the good times rolling with a 33-26 win over the Saskatchewan Roughriders. For a team that started the regular season 1-5 before embarking on a late-summer run, it’s a remarkable step as they continue to hunt for the first BC Grey Cup since 2011.
While the Lions trailed 17-13 at halftime, a turnaround and smart plays from star quarterback Nathan Rourke flipped the game on its head in the late stages, punching a ticket to the West final against the Edmonton Elks.
Sports Page BC’s Scott Rintoul DOVE INTO Rourke’s late heroics and what the win means for the Lions’ hopes of bringing the Grey Cup back to BC in his latest on Monday.
Vancouver Whitecaps Take Next Step
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View post ↗The Vancouver Whitecaps are Western Conference regular-season champions for the first time in the club’s MLS era, securing the top spot after FC Dallas and St. Louis CITY SC dropped points Saturday night. For good measure, the Whitecaps throttled Cascadia Cup rival Seattle Sounders 5-1 on Sunday, setting numerous records in front of a crowd of over 32,000, while maintaining second place in the MLS Supporters’ Shield table.
The win, which marked Vancouver’s second of the week after a midweek 3-0 win over San Diego FC, saw Brian White score his 100th Whitecaps goal, and head coach Jesper Sørensen tie the record for most wins in his first two MLS seasons, while the team set a club record with 11 regular season home wins, and became just the fourth team in MLS history to have back-to-back 60-point seasons.
While the Whitecaps have had their hiccups since selling talismanic midfielder Sebastian Berhalter after his rise to stardom with the U.S. men’s national team at the World Cup, they have finally found their stride at the perfect time of year.
Yet next Saturday’s Decision Day road clash with last-place CF Montréal remains important. A win or draw would secure second place in the MLS table and give Vancouver MLS Cup final hosting rights against every potential Eastern Conference final opponent, except Nashville SC, and all three points would make 2026 the best Whitecaps regular season ever, surpassing 2025’s points total.
BC Place will be rocking again soon, though. Game 1 of the first-round best-of-three series against the Western Conference Wild Card winner is set for Nov. 22, with the potential for a heated series against a Cascadia rival such as the Sounders or Portland Timbers, or a marquee team like the LA Galaxy.
BC Soccer Teams Chase Canada West Titles
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View post ↗It will be a BC-filled final weekend of the Canada West men’s and women’s soccer seasons after an outstanding weekend for teams across the province.
On the women’s side, the final four will feature all BC schools. This weekend saw the Trinity Western Spartans down the Mount Royal Cougars 2-1, the UBC Thunderbirds knock off the MacEwan Griffins 1-0, the Victoria Vikes prevail over the Calgary Dinos 2-1 and the Thompson Rivers Wolfpack claim a 3-1 win over the Saskatchewan Huskies.
For TWU, victory came in extra time on a Mansha Sidhu goal in Calgary, while the Thunderbirds squeaked out a clean-sheet win on the back of Maddy Norman's goal at the start of the second half. TRU, meanwhile, won their first home playoff match in four years with a brace from Esi Lufo, and Victoria secured their victory with Adrianna Hilton’s second-half goal.
All four teams now head to UBC next weekend for the Canada West semifinals and finals, vying for a spot to join the Thunderbirds a week later at the 2026 U Sports National Championship, also hosted at Thunderbirds Stadium.
As the women’s side approaches next week’s final four, the men’s bracket played the quarterfinals and semifinals this weekend, with UBC advancing to the Canada West final on home turf after beating the Lethbridge Ponghorns in the quarterfinal and Victoria in the semifinal, thanks to a wonderstrike from Yu-Hsuan Yuan.
The next two weekends will see the men’s and women’s Canada West finals hosted at UBC, along with the national championship, while Victoria will host the men’s soccer national championship. It’s a good time to be a soccer fan in BC.
Victoria Vikes Claim Canada West Titles
The Victoria Vikes are double champions in Canada West men’s and women’s cross-country, successfully defending their 2025 titles by winning both banners in Calgary over the weekend.
Madelyn Eybergen led the women’s team, finishing the eight-kilometer race in 29:16 to win the individual Canada West title, improving on her second-place finish at last year’s event, which preceded her U Sports championship.
Marisha Thompson finished second in 29:57, while Elissa Frielink finished fourth, narrowly missing a podium sweep for the Vikes.
On the men’s side, Victoria dominated the field, led by Daniel Damian’s third-place finish in 26:14, followed by Tyler Browne in fourth place. Jaxon Kuchar, a favourite entering the day after his win last year, finished in fifth.
With their impressive success, the Vikes now bring their prowess to the national stage in Hamilton, Ont., for the U Sports championships on Nov. 14.
UBC’s Sam Hendry Leads Canadians at New York Marathon
Sam Hendry might hail from Canmore, Alta., but the UBC student-athlete led all Canadians and cracked the top 70 at the New York Marathon on Sunday, finishing 67th overall in 2:27:00. Hendry was the only Canadian to finish above the 2.5-hour mark, and registered as an athlete from Vancovuer.
A five-time All-American cross-country skier for the University of Utah, he has embraced trail running in the summer months, won the 2019 Canadian 50km classic, and represented Canada at the World Mountain and Trail Championships.
Now studying at UBC, he crossed the line roughly 21 minutes after Sweden’s Andreas Almgren won the men’s race in his marathon debut, and less than three minutes after Kenya’s Sheila Chepkirui took the women’s title in a close finish, clocking 2:24:36.
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