Kya Moss has made it worth her time moving nearly 5,900 km east from the Tri-Cities to play the game she loves.
The Port Moody hockey product put up impressive numbers as a first-year defender in the Atlantic University Sport (AUS) regular season with St. Francis Xavier University (Antigonish, N.S.), recording the second highest points in her category from the 2022-23 campaign.
The 19-year-old Tri-Cities Predators alumna's impressive outing was enough to recently be named to the AUS women's hockey all-rookie team.
Moss was the only conference rookie blue-liner to start in all 28 regular season games, recording nine points with the X-Women — all assists — as well as the highest plus-minus rating, +9.
The points were 15th among all AUS defenders. She was tallied the eighth most shots on goal (54) and added 18 penalty minutes in the process.
The X-Women finished with a record of 20-5-3.
Off to nationals
On Wednesday (March 8), Moss and her team were one goal shy of the 12th AUS women's hockey title in St. Francis Xavier history, but fell 3-2 in double overtime to New Brunswick. The REDs won the best-of-three series 2-1.
However, she's now gearing up for the 2023 U SPORTS Women's Hockey Championship next week.
By reaching the conference finals' series, the X-Women earned one of two automatic berths from the AUS to the national tournament in Montreal from March 16 to 19.
In the playoffs, Moss scored her first goal at Canada's highest level of university hockey and added an assist in seven tilts.
She committed to playing for St. Francis Xavier in January 2022, located more tha 210 km northeast of Halifax.
Moss, a member of the Qalipu Mi’kmaq First Nation Band, served as captain of the Pacific Steelers of the Junior Women's Hockey League (JWHL) prior to putting pen to paper.
She'll now look to help win her university's first-ever national title, currently ranked as the fifth seed going into the final week of the season.
St. Francis Xavier's best finish was a silver medal in 2011.
