Photo credit Guekph Gryphons
GUELPH, Ont. (CIS) – The University of Toronto Varsity Blues are off to the gold-medal final at the CIS women’s field hockey championship thanks to a 4-1 win over OUA archrival and tournament host Guelph, Friday afternoon.
With one day left in the preliminary round, Toronto tops the round-robin standings with a perfect 3-0 record and nine points, followed by reigning CIS champion UBC (2-1) and Victoria (2-1) with six points apiece, and Waterloo (0-2) and Guelph (0-3), both still looking for their first points at the competition.
The winner of the UBC-Victoria matchup Saturday at 12:20 p.m. will join U of T in Sunday’s national final. Saturday’s other round-robin duels will see Toronto take on Waterloo at 10 a.m., and Guelph and Waterloo wrap up the preliminary round at 4 p.m.
The tournament is turning into a nightmare for the OUA champion Gryphons. After receiving the No. 1 seed early in the week, they must beat Waterloo on Saturday just to advance to the bronze-medal match.
The Blues, who are 3-0 at the championship for the first time since 2000, last played for CIS gold in 2007, when they captured their 10th McCrae Cup in front of their home crowd. It will mark their 17th appearance in the final in 36 years since the inaugural national championship in 1975.
“It’s really exciting. In my rookie year I was new and just sort of along for the ride, helping where I could,” said fourth-year all-Canadian midfielder Hannah Tighe of the 2007 win. “But this year I’m captain so it’s cool to be a leader on a team that’s making it to the finals.”
The score was level 1-1 at the half but Toronto’s offence exploded in the second half with three goals and it came from a variety of players.
“It clicked, we all clicked,” Tighe said about their offence. “Our forwards have really done a lot for us this season. They’re getting it, they’re finding the baseline, they’re attacking the circle and we’re just finding the net.”
Third-year midfielder Katherine McNeill of West Vancouver, B.C., opened the scoring in the 26th minute on a short corner.
Two-time reigning CIS player of the year Brienne Stairs tied it at 1-1 in the 33rd minute. It was the first goal of the tournament for the Kitchener, Ont., native, who led the OUA this season with 32 markers in 14 games.
Stairs’ sister, Tegan, also an all-Canadian, carried the ball down the right hand line before dishing it off to Brienne who crossed it to Brittany Seidler of Oliver, B.C. Seidler, the third all-Canadian member of Guelph’s top line, saw her shot stopped, but Stairs was there to put away the rebound.
It was the first goal scored against the Blues at the championship.
Goaltender Kathryn Williams of Burlington, Ont., was solid again between the U of T pipes, stoning Seidler one on one.
All-Canadian defender Kaelan Watson of Richmond, B.C., blasted the ball past Gryphon netminder Kaye McLagan of Mitchell, Ont., just hitting the top of the backboard, putting Toronto ahead 2-1 just after the half.
Natalie Provenzano of Richmond Hill, Ont., and All-Canadian Kyesia O’Neale of Mississauga, Ont., rounded out the scoring with their first of the tournament.
McLagan started in net for the Gryphons and made some stellar
one-on-one saves before being replaced by fourth-year Dorothy Marcy
of Oliver, B.C., in the 58th minute.
Tighe of Penticton, B.C., was named player of the game for the
Blues for her dominance through the centre.
Brienne Stairs was Guelph’s game MVP.
GAME NOTES: U of T and Guelph have met in the past four OUA finals, Guelph winning three of them, including a 3-2 victory in the 2010 title match... The last time Toronto beat Guelph at the CIS championship was in the 2007 gold-medal game, in overtime... The two teams have only met six times in history at the CIS tournament: Toronto has the upper hand with a 3-2-1 record.
SCORING
SUMMARY
TOR 1-3: 4
GUE 1-0: 1
First half
26th, TOR, Katherine McNeill (1)
33rd, GUE, Brienne Stairs (1)
Second half
41st, TOR, Kaelan Watson (1)
49th, TOR, Natalie Provenzano (1)
54th, TOR, Kyesia O.Neale (1)
Goaltenders
TOR: Kathryn Williams (W, 70:00, 1 GA, 2-0)
GUE: Kaye McLagan (L, 58:00, 4 GA, 0-3)
GUE: Dorothy Marcy (12:00, 0 GA, 0-0)
Players of the game
TOR: Hannah Tighe (Penticton, B.C.)
GUE: Brienne Stairs (Kitchener, Ont.)
PRE-CHAMPIONSHIP SEEDING
1. Guelph Gryphons (OUA champions)
2. UBC Thunderbirds (Canada West champions)
3. Toronto Varsity Blues (OUA finalists)
4. Victoria Vikes (Canada West second place)
5. Waterloo Warriors (OUA bronze medallists)
STANDINGS, SCHEDULE & RESULTS
Round-robin standings (after 7 of 10 games)
GP W
L
T
GF
GA PTS
1.
Toronto 3
3
0
0
8
1 9
2.
UBC 3
2
1
0
8
4 6
3.
Victoria
3
2
1
0
7
4 6
4.
Waterloo 2
0
2
0
2
11 0
5.
Guelph 3 0
3
0
3
8 0
Thursday, Nov. 4
9:30 Round-Robin 1: Guelph 1, UBC 2
11:50 Round-Robin 2: Toronto 3, Victoria 0
15:30 Round-Robin 3: UBC 6 Waterloo 2
17:50 Round-Robin 4: Guelph 1 Victoria 2
Friday, Nov. 5
10:00 Round-Robin 5: Toronto 1 UBC 0
12:20 Round-Robin 6: Victoria 5 Waterloo 0
16:00 Round-Robin 7: Guelph 1 Toronto 4
Saturday, Nov. 6
10:00 Round-Robin 8: Toronto vs. Waterloo
12:20 Round-Robin 9: UBC vs. Victoria
16:00 Round-Robin 10: Guelph vs. Waterloo
17:30 Tie-Breaking Strokes (if necessary)
Sunday, Nov. 7
10:00 Bronze medal
13:00 Championship final: Toronto vs. TBD
-CIS-