UBC Thunderbirds’ Navid Mashinchi (men’s soccer) and Jasmin Dhanda (women’s soccer) were named Canada West 1st Stars of the Week after leading their teams in holding serve in the second weekend of conference play.
The two players were also named CIS (Canadian Interuniversity Sport) national athletes of the week for the period ending September 14.
Mashinchi totalled four assists and two goals in two victories, while Dhanda found the back of the net four times in the sweep of the visiting UNBC Timberwolves.
UBC Okanagan’s Enzo Paal and Saskatchewan’s Brett Levis received 2nd and 3rd Stars honours in men’s.
Trinity Western Spartan Jessica King and MacEwan Griffin Jenny Lam rounded out this weekend’s top performers for the women.
1st Star: #10 Navid Mashinchi, UBC (Soccer)
Fifth-year midfielder Navid Mashinchi, last week’s Canada West 3rd Star of the Week, had another excellent weekend in helping his No. 1-ranked UBC Thunderbirds to a pair of victories over the visiting UNBC Timberwolves.
Mashinchi recorded three assists in UBC’s 5-1 win on Saturday afternoon.
Then on Sunday, he figured into all the scoring in a 3-0 Thunderbirds victory. Mashinchi scored the game winner on a 36th-minute free kick from about 20 yards out. The Port Moody, B.C., native fired a rocket across the penalty area that blew past the UNBC wall and a diving Timberwolves goalie Ty Venhola before finding the net just inside the left goal post.
He got an assist, his fourth of the weekend, on UBC’s 41st-minute goal. Mashinchi took another free kick, but this time, Paul Clerc got on the end of it and headed the ball into the net.
Mashinchi then fired home a penalty kick in the 54th minute to finish off the scoring.
He now has four goals on the season, tied for second in the Canada West, and five assists, which is the best in the league.
The Thunderbirds will travel to the B.C. Interior for games at Thompson Rivers and UBC Okanagan this weekend.
1st Star: #9 Jasmin Dhanda, UBC (Soccer)
Second-year UBC Thunderbirds forward Jasmin Dhanda had a four-goal weekend to lead her team to two victories on the weekend against the UNBC Timberwolves in Vancouver.
On Saturday afternoon, the Surrey, B.C., native opened the scoring in the 20th minute, recording an unassisted marker to send the T-Birds on the way to their first win of the 2014 Canada West season. Dhanda then capped off the day by scoring UBC’s final goal in a 5-0 triumph.
The reigning Canada West Rookie of the Year again found the net twice on Sunday as the T-Birds claimed a 3-0 victory. In the 29th minute, she one-timed a cross from Amrit Berar inside the left goalpost for the game winner. The Kinesiology student added an insurance goal in the 64th minute as UBC improved to 2-2 on the season.
Dhanda’s four goals put her third in the Canada West scoring race.
The Thunderbirds hope to harness the momentum from their wins this weekend (2-2-0) as they head to Kamloops to face Thompson Rivers University (0-2-2) on September 19.
Canada West is the premier athletic conference in the country and is home to champion student-athletes that excel on the field, in the classroom and in their communities. As the winningest conference in the CIS with over 100 national championships in the past decade, Canada West and its 17-member institutions commit to a student-athlete experience where competitive excellence, scholarship and sportsmanship equally contribute into molding our future professional athletes and leaders.
Image credit: UBC Thunderbirds
