Four the Final Season
Naomi Campbell, Staff Writer
For university hockey players, each is given five years of eligibility to be rostered on a team while attending school full-time. Most use four of those years before graduating, but for these four women, they couldn’t leave without making use of their full time in a Cougars uniform.
Fifth-year players Abbey Borbandy, Kaia Borbandy, Sydney Benko, and Jori Hansen-Young described their experience as a Cougar in one to two words.
Abbey felt overwhelming and exciting described her experience best, while Kaia and Sydney called it enjoyable, and Jori characterised it as memorable as well as too fast. Each word has a similar meaning, but feels different for each of these women.
Coming into the team at the ages of 17 and 18 years old, it was a brand new experience for all of them. Benko and Kaia showed up alongside each other, before Hansen-Young and Abbey followed them the year after. As rookies, Benko looked up to then-fifth-year veteran Tiana Ko, while Jori chose Tori Williams because of their hometown connection.
Abbey quickly picked Emma Bergesen, while Kaia struggled to narrow it down as there were so many great players her first year, yet landed on Morgan Ramsay.
“I connected with how I played with Morgan, because we were both grinders, battlers, and we knew our role versus other people who didn’t play similar roles,” Kaia said. “I think maybe focusing on some of the other girls that played similar roles as me. I aspired to be like them in my last year.
Looking back on their five-year careers, they each had a special, significant season where they could say everything finally ‘clicked’. For Abbey, her third season was the turning point of her career. For Benko, it was her first official year when she made the travel roster to head to the University of British Columbia.
“I’d say in my third year, it finally clicked, and I played for myself, and just put everything behind me,” Abbey said.
“For me, it was my first year actually playing, and it was when I made the travel roster to go to UBC. I got to play both games that weekend and just got to be in the lineup more consistently after that. After a tough first semester, that was my moment,” Benko said
As a Captain, fans see Kaia as the sole leader of the team, and the girls look up to her, She believes that she couldn’t have stood where she stands without the help of the other three girls, let alone with the C on her sweater.
“I feel like regardless if there’s a letter on my chest or not, like us four, I feel like not only did we go through moments of really rough leadership on our team or not knowing what the leadership group would look like. I feel like together we have built a culture that not only can we leave behind strong voices, find our ways on the team, encourage younger girls to speak up and not be afraid to speak up,” Kaia said. “I just think that without the help of these three specifically, we wouldn’t have been building a culture where we could walk away from it one day and say like, we’ve made an impact.
Always standing perched behind the bench every game is Head Coach Scott Rivett, who has been a part of the last five years with these girls, helping guide them to where they want to end up in life on and off the ice. The girls each speak very highly of Rivett in his capabilities to turn this team around in so many different ways.
“Scott kind of has built this program from being a team that doesn’t really contend to playoffs to being consistently in the top of the league. So I think that speaks to his ability to recruit people, his ability to get us to play the right way and get us to buy in,” Hansen-Young said
“I think his expectations have always been clear since the first day all of us showed up at the rink. And that’s something I always really appreciated and someone you could always have a conversation with if needed. And he was going to be honest with you, and I think that’s kind of what you need from a coach and someone that we’ve all learned to respect over the years,” Benko said. “He cares about us as people before hockey players, I don’t think anyone could ever question that.”
Back in the 2022-23 season, all four of these girls were a part of the U SPORTS Championship team, which each of them called their favourite and most successful year. Yet when they talked about the amount of fun they’ve had in a specific year on the team, this year takes the cake for all four girls.
“From a most fun team year, with coming to the rink every day, with a smile on your face, it would be this year for me. It’s a tight-knit group and we haven’t had any issues and everyone’s just getting along really well,” Benko said.
“Yeah. I think also with that, like we all know that we’re coming to the end of our careers here at MRU. So it’s easier to not grip your stick as tight and like to be able to focus and live in the moment,” Hansen-Young said.
With the season quickly coming to an end, all four girls have officially reached the 100 game mark in their University careers, with Kaia being the first on October 17, 2025. Abbey celebrated on November 29, 2025, Hansen-Young grabbed hers on December 5, 2025 and Benko finally joined the club on January 17.
The women play their final regular season games on February 13 and 14 on the road against the University of Saskatchewan. With their top spot on the leaderboard, they look to take on the CanadaWest playoffs before returning to the U SPORTS National Tournament.
The women celebrated their senior night on Saturday, January 23rd. Don’t worry if you missed it, there’s still a couple more games left in the season, and you can catch them in the CanadaWest playoffs starting the third week of February.
