Thunder Athletics Weekly Recap - Week 7

Week 7 of the Thunder season was one of the busiest yet, as Badminton, Basketball, Hockey, Soccer, and Volleyball all had games this past weekend. Take a look at how each sport wrapped up the week.

Badminton

The first Badminton tournament of the year was held this past Sunday, as NAIT welcomed all teams to their facility to open the season.

Sam Chauhan impressed in the men's singles category, finishing the top eight and Emma Tran finished in the top five in women's singles. In men's doubles, Mattias Andersson and Jonathan Su claimed second place, dropping the final game to Matthew Wong and Ethan Lee of NAIT 21-15, 21-13. Tran and doubles partner Cheyenne Smykalski finished fourth in the women's doubles category while Su and Smykalski also finished fourth in mixed doubles.

Up next for Thunder Badminton is a trip to SAIT on Sunday November 16th for the second tournament of the season. 

 
Basketball

Thunder Basketball kicked off their season with two home games each, facing off against the SAIT Trojans on Friday and the Lethbridge Polytechnic Kodiaks on Saturday.

Women's Basketball jumped out to a hot start, defeating the Trojans 67-58 in their home opener, and bested the Kodiaks 81-45 on Saturday. Against SAIT, Chloe Sutherland led the way offensively with an efficient 18 points on 8-of-12 shooting, adding seven rebounds and three assists to anchor the team's attack. Grethe Winchell provided strong interior play with 11 points and seven rebounds, giving the team a reliable presence on both ends of the floor. Suthlerand continued her dominance against the Kodiaks, putting up 30 points while adding 4 steals and 7 rebounds on Saturday. Haley Cleland enjoyed a strong game on multiple fronts, scoring 17 points with 4 rebounds and 3 assists.

For the men's team, it was a tough start to the season, as the Thunder dropped Friday night's game to SAIT 85-64, and fell to the Kodiaks 78-62 on Saturday. Bright spots for the weekend included Shak Jama, who scored 22 points in the game against SAIT, and Malik Edwards who put up 17 points to go along with 3 steals on Friday. Edwards continued his great play, scoring a team high 16 points on Saturday versus the Kodiaks.

Both teams are in action this coming weekend, playing a back-to-back against Lakeland College, traveling to Lakeland on Friday October 24th followed by playing the Rustlers at home on Saturday October 25th. 

Hockey

Thunder Hockey began the 2025-26 ACAC season with two games against the NAIT Ooks. A big rival for CUE, the Thunder started the year strong taking both games from the Ooks.

Friday's home game was a 7-2 victory, with contributions from Zachary Cunningham scoring two goals, Ian Wilson with three assists, and Dylan Handel with 4 points in the game. Griffin Bowerman stood tall in net, stopping 31 of 33 shots. 

Saturday's road game was a much tighter 4-3 Thunder win. Krz Plummer got the scoring started, with Riley Morgan and captain Lukas Konashuk also adding goals. Dallon Wilton scored the game winning goal in the third period, and also added an assist on the night for 2 points in the game. 

This coming weekend, the team will travel to Caronport, Saskatchewan to take on the Briercrest Clippers on both Friday night and Saturday afternoon.

Soccer

This past weekend Thunder Soccer hosted their last game of the regular season, as both teams faced off against the Northwestern Polytechnic Wolves (NWP) for Seniors Day on Sunday. 

It was sheer domination for Thunder women's soccer as they defeated the Wolves 9-1. Ava Rudyk, Sherlyn Melendez, and Abigael Burton each had 2 goals in this game, with Isabella Amico, Caylie Rich, and Angelina Saporito each potting a goal of their own. With the regular season now complete, leading the way in goals and points for the Thunder was Burton, who scored 10 goals in the 11 games she played, while also finishing with a career high 24 points.

Men's soccer finished their season on a positive note, taking care of business and getting the win over NWP by a score of 2-0. Marco Charpentier and Kaiden Stasiuk each scored the first goals of their ACAC careers in this match, putting the game out of reach in the second half for the Wolves. Graduating senior Rosty Leha secured a clean sheet in his final game as a member of the Thunder, stopping three shots throughout the match. With the season now over for men's soccer, leading the team all season was captain and graduating senior Carlos Echeverria, who ended the season first on the team in goals with 7, assists with 3, and total points with 17.

Final ACAC standings for soccer see the women's team in first with a 10-1-1 record, and the men just missing out on the playoffs finishing in fourth at 5-4-3. Women's soccer will travel to Lethbridge this weekend for ACAC Soccer Championships and a chance to repeat as conference champions.

Volleyball

It was another opening weekend for the Thunder, this time for Thunder Volleyball. The teams went on the road to start the season, playing the SAIT Trojans on Friday and Lethbridge Polytechnic Kodiaks on Saturday. 

For women's volleyball, they finished the weekend 1-1 after falling to the Trojans 3-0 and defeating the Kodiaks 3-0. First year Kolby Zimmer was a standout against the Trojans, accumulating 7 kills, 8 assists, and 4 blocks in the Friday matchup. Emma Thompson made huge contributions in Saturday's win, adding 9 kills, while setter Kayla Burns chipped in with a 20 assists.

The weekend was a tough start for Thunder men's volleyball as the group lost both matches 3-0. Kaiden Gray had a huge game on Friday against SAIT, racking up a team high 12 kills and adding 18 assists, while Brodie Wight had a big night versus the Kodiaks with 10 kills and 1 dig.

Both volleyball teams will have the upcoming weekend off before hosting Ambrose University on Halloween night at Ralph King Athletic Centre for their home opener at 6:00pm and 8:00pm.