SASKATOON – The UBC Thunderbirds were crowned Canada West champions Sunday afternoon on Field 7 in PotashCorp Park thanks to a 1-0 victory over defending conference champions the Trinity Western Spartans.

It is the 14th Canada West title for the Thunderbirds and their first since 2007. Both teams advance to the CIS Women's Soccer Championship Nov 12-15 in Vancouver, along with the bronze medal winning Calgary Dinos.

Shayla Chorney scored the championship-clinching goal in just the sixth minute. 9 started off the play carrying the ball into the box and firing a shot off of the head of a Spartan defender before banking off of the crossbar. The rebound off the bar came right to Chorney who made no mistake sending a strike to the back of the net.

Minutes after the opening goal the Spartans would counter attack with pressure, but could not get a quality chance at the UBC net as the Thunderbird defenders cleared away a pair of quality crosses.

With the score still 1-0 in the second half, the T-Birds were content to protect the lead. Trinity Western continued to press for the tying goal, which led to a great chance for UBC to double its lead. Amelia Crawford collected the ball on the right edge of the box and sent a quick pass towards the front of the goal for Janna Speed who neatly redirected the ball on net. Keeper Ally Williamson dove back to her left for the save to keep the Spartans in the game.

Despite Trinity Western continuing to try to create chances in the closing minutes, the T-Birds defence held strong, not allowing the Spartans to generate any threatening scoring chances down the stretch.

UBC had eight shots in the match, four of them on goal. The Spartans recorded one shot on goal of their five on the day.