The sports section's top 10 stories of the year

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With the end of classes comes the end of another school year here in The Ubyssey sports section. Though there were evidently some big storylines for sports fans on campus, here is a breakdown by the numbers of the section's top 10 stories from September to April:

10. Skating royalty back on campus: UBC hosts ISU Grand Prix Final this week at Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre

By Natalie Morris

['auto'] File The Ubyssey

This year, UBC hosted the ISU Grand Prix Final — one of the biggest events in international competitive skating. It brought top skaters including Nathan Chen, Shoma Uno, Alina Zagitova and Rika Kihira to campus in December.

9. Following final set win over Ryerson, UBC women’s volleyball are national champions

By Scott Young

['auto'] Courtesy Don Voaklander

Women's volleyball took down the Ryerson Rams in an epic five-set match after being down 2-0 early to claim this years national title — it was the comeback of the year, as they went into the tournament eighth-ranked and toppled the first-ranked Trinity Western Spartans on the way to gold too.

8. Waves of talent: How the Vancouver Whitecaps helped turn UBC’s men’s soccer team into a national powerhouse

By Brendan Smith

['auto'] File Samantha McCabe

The Whitecaps franchise in Vancouver was establish in 2008 — but the connection between the 'Caps and UBC started back in 2007 with the Whitecaps FC residency program. Since then, UBC has benefitted from several of the Whitecaps recruits joining the Thunderbird program.

7. Swipe right: Thunderbird Athletes Council are sharing UBC’s eligible athletes with campus through ‘Tinderbird’

By Elizabeth Wang

['auto'] File Ileana Soza

The UBC Thunderbird Athletes Council started a “Tinderbird” section on their Instagram account, featuring one student-athlete every Monday to promote the underrepresented sports among the student athletes community.

6. Ones to watch: Thunderbirds’ volleyball

By Scott Young and Elizabeth Wang

['auto'] Files Elizabeth Wang

With women's rugby and women's field hockey beginning in the fall, our writers Elizabeth Wang and Scott Young highlighted three players from each program to look out for this year.

5. U Sports Men's Soccer Championship Hosted by the UBC Thunderbirds

By Lucy Fox, Ryan Neale, Scott Young, James Vogl, Brendan Smith, Mitchell Ballachay and Sherwyn Kalyan

['auto'] File Salomon Micko Benrimoh

UBC men's soccer hosted the 2019 U Sports national tournament this past year. Though they were arguably the title favourite, what ended up occurring was a much different storyline that favoured the Montreal Carabins (the eventual tournament winners).

4. Ones to watch: Women’s rugby and women’s field hockey

By Ryan Neale and Salomon Micko Benrimoh

['auto'] File Salomon Micko Benrimoh

With women's rugby and women's field hockey beginning in the fall, our writers Ryan Neale and Salomon Micko Benrimoh highlighted three players from each program to look out for this year.

3. Thunderbird football star suspended two years for cocaine presence

By Lucy Fox and Alex Nguyen

['auto'] File Saman Shariati

Thunderbird star receiver Trivel Pinto received a two-year suspension after testing positive for cocaine in one of the team's late October games this past season.

2. Jessica Sevick's Track of Life

By Lucy Fox

['auto'] File Claire Lloyd

Today, Jessica Sevick is a member of UBC's rowing team. Years ago, she was a luger — an accident on a luge track in Calgary changed her life track forever, not just in sport but also in solidifying her interest in neuroscience and traumatic brain injury study.

1. Following athlete tweet alleging gender inequality, UBC Athletics changes hockey scheduling policy

By Samantha McCabe

['auto'] File The Ubyssey

After a member of the women’s hockey team voiced concerns about gender inequality, UBC Athletics introduced a new policy for hockey game scheduling that decides game times based on league rankings and will reevaluate how they look at the gendering of sport at UBC.