Kya Moss is set to compete in Canada's highest level of university hockey in the fall.
And she'll have to travel nearly 5,900 km across the country before starting that next chapter in her young career.
The Port Moody product has committed to playing at St. Francis Xavier University for the 2022-23 season — located in Antigonish, N.S., more than 210 km northeast of Halifax.
She officially put pen to paper on Jan. 20 to the X-Women hockey team, who play in U SPORTS against the best programs in the Atlantic conference and the country.
"So honoured to be a part of this program," said Moss in a social media post.
The 18-year-old also identifies as a member of the Qalipu Mi’kmaq First Nation Band.
In 2019, as a defender, she competed for Team BC at the National Aboriginal Hockey Championships (NAHC) in Whitehorse, Yukon.
She began her journey with the Tri-Cities Predators Female Ice Hockey Association.
Moss then cracked the Greater Vancouver Comets roster in 2020, and was also named an alternate captain as a rookie.
However, the blue-liner combined for four points — two goals and two assists — in four league games with the under-18 elite squad as the COVID-19 pandemic did not allow travel or full competition at the time.
For her grad year, Moss decided to take a stride further and join the Pacific Steelers of the Junior Women's Hockey League (JWHL).
She was named captain for the Richmond, B.C.-based organization in the 2021-22 campaign, which competes with other programs across western Canada.
St. Francis Xavier's X-Women are one of the more successful Canadian teams in recent history.
Since joining the top ranks in 1997, they've won 11 Atlantic conference titles — the most of any other school in the division — including four in the last 10 full seasons.
The best finish the women's hockey program ever recorded was a national silver medal in 2011.
