By Howard Tsumura
Varsity Letters
VANCOUVER — One year ago, it wasn’t hard to figure out the identity of a UBC Thunderbirds’ women’s basketball team whose best players were largely a part of the program’s huge six-player fifth-year senior class.
The pregame player warmups were like exercises in palpable chemistry personified, what with its outpouring of camaraderie for everyone in the gym to see.
Its new leader Dave Taylor had come in vowing to adapt his systems to fit the strengths of this veteran-laden team… one which was now into its third head coaching change in five seasons and hungry for stable leadership. It proved to be a powerful confluence of energy, ultimately fuelling a run to both the Canada West title game and the U SPORTS Final 8 national championship tournament.
One year later, the build-up to Taylor’s second season may seem a bit more muted by comparison, yet that’s not because there’s any less promise or expectation, especially among what could wind up being the team’s veteran core. It’s just that so many of those pivotal to this season’s prime rotation minutes have prepared for Thursday’s (5:30 p.m., Canada West TV) Canada West conference-opener against Langley’s Trinity Western Spartans at War Memorial Gymnasium from somewhat more non-traditional platforms like season-ending surgeries and redshirt seasons. As well, after having graduated six seniors last season, as many as five more are expected to depart via cap-and-gown after 2026-27, prompting what is a cheeky nod of comparison to its own campus bus station known to all as the UBC Exchange.
As it pertains to this season’s team, everything starts and ends with Mona Berlitz, the fourth-year 6-foot German import, who after leading UBC to within one victory of a berth in the U SPORTS national championship game in 2024 right on her own campus, was forced to miss all of last season after tearing an ACL last off-season.
There’s Cerys Merton, the compact but powerful guard from PoCo-Terry Fox who enters her fifth and final season as the team’s acknowledged on-floor spark plug as well as the program’s all-time steals leader.
There’s Amy Stinson, the 5-foot-11 transfer from McMaster University in Hamilton who spent all of last season at UBC during a red-shirt study-practice-but-no-play season before bringing her shooting touch to the fore this season as a fifth-year swing player.
Perhaps most compelling is fifth-year Stella LaGrange, the 5-foot-10 guard-forward out of Kelowna’s Okanagan Mission who through her focussed determination has brought her trademark toughness and integrated within her ever-improving to her game at both ends of the floor. This year she has finally been green-lighted to show her possibilities as a primary scorer.
There’s also Brooke Wagner, the 6-foot-3 forward out of Sherwood Park, Alta., who last season as a pure freshman rookie was thrown into the crucible as a starter in 12 of her games and who averaged 16.7 minutes per game. It was the perfect prelude to position herself both on a higher floor and with a better understanding of how high her ceiling could actually be.
There are, of course, any number of variations of that group ready to meld with the rest of the roster, but if we’re speaking of that aforementioned quintet alone, even they have some chemistry to build. Here’s more to consider:
*Berlitz, based on the timing of her injury suffered in the 2025 offseason never had the chance to play with either Stinson or Wagner, sure to be key front-court mates, until this preseason, one in which she herself was being monitored for potential over-use following her ACL surgery.
“Honestly, she’s looked great,” said Taylor of a player who before her injury started 30 of 30 games in 2024-25, leading the team with 16.3 points and 6.9 rebounds, but most importantly as a physical fulcrum in which the team’s offensive appetite could be seamlessly satisfied at a myriad of tempos. “There’s always a bit of rust to come off when you haven’t played for a year. If you watched her play you’d think she’s back. It’ll still take a couple of games. I would say right now she’s playing at the level of Canada West all-star. Within a few games she’ll be back at all-Canadian level.” Berlitz was picked a second-team all-Canadian after UBC advanced to the national semifinals in 2024-25.
*In the case of Stinson, she was around the team all of last season but never saw game action with the group until the current preseason.
At McMaster in 2024-25, she averaged 17.7 points and 6.9 rebounds for the Marauders over about 29 minutes per game.
“Amy Stinson is a massive addition for us because she adds some shooting and anybody who watched us last year has said we needed to have more shooting,” said Taylor.”
*LaGrange has in some fashion played with them all, mostly Merton, but she will now go into games with a much more different mindset as a freshly-minted primary scorer. LaGrange embrace the added expectations through a healthy preseason minutes per game 27.4 by averaging a team-leading 11.6 ppg, 4.9 rebounds, two steals, 33 per cent (7-of-21) three-point shooting and 82 per cent (14-of-17) free throw shooting.
*Merton might have the least change because her frenetic style at both ends of the court is unique enough to remain a valued constant. Of all the returning ‘Birds, Merton (23.6 minutes) and LaGrange (20.6 minutes) were the second and fifth most on the team last season.
Also returning from a season lost to injury will be 6-foot-2 fourth-year forward Emilia Banmann who was a part off the 2023 recruiting class along with LaGrange, Berlitz and Merton.
“We’re still big, but we’re also long,” said Taylor. “I really like our starting five. When we’re good, like we’ve got good stuff coming off the bench. Last year we were so post heavy. We were trying to basically figure out at times how to play with four posts. But now we make more sense. Positionally we make more sense.”
The team is also returning a quartet of guards in fourth-years Maddy Billings and Jade Huynh, and second-years Reese Tam and Maeva Carnahan.
The rookie class also features two guards and a forward.
Calgary-Western Canada’s Amanda Guss and North Vancouver-Argyle’s Sadie Danks are premier point guards, and they are joined by promising 6-foot-1 post Alfreda Okolie from Edmonton-Strathcona. In their respective lead-ups to UBC, all three first years, have to varying degrees, flashed the potential to become game-changing players over the course of their UBC careers.
NO ROLLERCOASTERS… PLEASE!
Over the course of a 5-2 preseason in which they played games at home, at the University of Calgary and at the University of Victoria, Taylor has seen those cliched peaks and valleys.
Two high notes:
*UBC’s performance in a 67-59 win over the UNB Reds at Calgary, a victory that came against the team coached by former UBC head coach Erin McAleenan, one which she coached all the way to last season’s Bronze Baby national championship game before falling short.
*UBC’s 59-52 loss to the two-time defending national champion Saskatchewan Huskies in the second of two games played at Victoria.
“When we play Sask, and we’re up three at halftime, and we grind down a little bit late, but we play them tough, and we’re right there with them and play well in a loss,” Taylor began. “And we beat UNB, who’s a very good team, national finalists last year. So we won one and we were right there with the other.”
UBC also beat Brandon twice at home, as well as both Calgary and Regina while losing to Mt. Royal.
And it was his team’s uneven preseason play, it’s tendency to touch peaks before falling into valleys, that provided the material for an important talk with his team.
“Our whole thing in the preseason is that we’ve just been very inconsistent, and I said to the team after our games in Victoria that, you know, we just play on a little bit of a roller coaster,” Taylor relayed. “We either really look really good, or we look awful. And so I said ‘I hate roller coasters. I don’t like riding them. I don’t like them, and I certainly do not like coaching on one.’ And so we’ve just got to get consistent. And that’s going to be our fight.”
UBC follows Thursday’s home opener against TWU with a 4 p.m. tip time on Saturday in Abbotsford against the young Fraser Valley Cascades.
After a Nov. 6 trip to much-improved UBC Okanagan, the ‘Birds return home for its first weekend double-header of the season, meeting UNBC (5:30 p.m.) on Friday, Nov. 13 and then Thompson Rivers on Nov, 14 (4 p.m.)
If you’re reading this story or viewing these photos on any website other than one belonging to a university athletic department, it has been taken without appropriate permission. In these challenging times, true journalism will survive only through your dedicated support and loyalty. VarsityLetters.ca and all of its exclusive content has been created to serve B.C.’s high school and university sports community with hard work, integrity and respect. Feel free to drop us a line any time at howardtsumura@gmail.com.
