Photo credit Jamie MacDonald
TORONTO (CIS) – Five different players scored as the host University of Toronto Varsity Blues defeated the Western Mustangs 6-0 in the third game of the FHC – CIS women’s field hockey championship, Thursday afternoon at Varsity Centre.
It was the second match of opening day for the second-seeded Blues, who battled No. 1 UBC to a 1-1 draw this morning in the tournament opener.
“We’ve had a lot of success against Western this year,” said Varsity Blues head coach John DeSouza, whose team beat the fifth-ranked Mustangs 7-1 and 5-0 during the regular season. “We’ve played them three times now and have had some pretty high scoring games. I think it was just a matter of getting the first one and then we started to gain our confidence and get our legs under us.”
Starting in the ninth minute of play, the hosts exploded for five goals in a span of 14 minutes.
Third-year forward Ally Evanyshyn of Burlington, Ont., opened the scoring with the eventual game-winner when she received a cross pass in the circle and banged it home on the right side of the net. Tegan Stairs, a CIS all-Canadian from Kitchener, Ont., notched Toronto’s second goal just three minutes later, capitalizing on a rebound in front of the net.
Veteran defender and Varsity Blues player of the game Kelley Lusk extended U of T’s lead with a perfect shot from the middle off a penalty corner in the 17th minute. Fellow North Vancouver native Alex Thicke scored three minutes later on a tic-tac-toe passing play from Kaelan Watson and Sara Ali.
Waterloo, Ont., native Amanda Woodcroft, also a CIS all-Canadian, then tipped a Heather Haughn shot three minutes later to give the hosts a 5-0 advantage after only 23 minutes of action.
In the second half, Stairs notched her second of the game on a long, wide-angled shot in the 43rd minute. Western almost got on the board in the 66th minute as second-year forward Jessica Crawford of Oakville, Ont., sent a hard shot just wide of the net on the short side.
Fourth-year goalie Kathryn Williams of Burlington, Ont., earned the shut out and helped extend Toronto’s undefeated season in net.
“My hat goes off to U of T,” said Western head coach Jeff Pacheco, the CIS coach of the year. “They came out with something to prove after a stale performance versus UBC this morning. We’ve had a tough time against U of T all year and the scoreboard doesn’t hide that.”
The Varsity Blues (1-0-1) take on the No. 3 Guelph Gryphons
(1-0-0) in a rematch of the OUA final Friday at 10 a.m. Toronto
beat Guelph 5-2 last weekend to claim the conference banner.
Western (0-1-0) will take on the No. 4 Victoria Vikes (0-1-0) at
12:20 p.m., also tomorrow.
SCORING SUMMARY
TOR: 5-1: 6
WES: 0-0: 0
First half
TOR Ally Evanyshyn (1), 9th minute
TOR Tegan Stairs (1), 12th
TOR Kelley Lusk (1), 17th
TOR Alex Thicke (1), 20th
TOR Amanda Woodcroft (1), 23rd
Second half
TOR Tegan Stairs (2), 43rd
Goaltenders
TOR: Kathryn Williams (W, 70:00, 0 GA, 1-0-1)
WES: Bethan Blackburn (L, 70:00, 6 GA, 0-1-0)
Players of the game
TOR: Kelley Lusk (North Vancouver, B.C.)
WES: Bethan Blackburn (Elora, Ont.)
PRE-CHAMPIONSHIP SEEDING
1. UBC (Canada West champions)
2. Toronto (OUA champions)
3. Guelph (OUA finalists)
4. Victoria (Canada West second place)
5. Western (OUA bronze medallists)
STANDINGS, SCHEDULE & RESULTS
Official championship website: http://english.cis-sic.ca/championships/fh/index
Round-robin standings (after 3 of 10 games)
GP W L T GF GA PTS
1. Toronto 2 1 0 1 7 1 4
2. Guelph 1 1 0 0 5 0 3
3. UBC 1 0 0 1 1 1 1
4. Victoria 1 0 1 0 0 5 0
5. Western 1 0 1 0 0 6 0
NOTE: 3 points for a win and 1 point for a tie.
Thursday, Nov. 1
9:30 Game 1: UBC 1 Toronto 1
11:50 Game 2: Guelph 5 Victoria 0
15:30 Game 3: Toronto 6 Western 0
17:50 Game 4: UBC vs. Victoria (CIS-SIC.tv webcast)
Friday, Nov. 2
10:00 Game 5: Guelph vs. Toronto (CIS-SIC.tv webcast)
12:20 Game 6: Victoria vs. Western (CIS-SIC.tv webcast)
16:00 Game 7: UBC vs. Guelph (CIS-SIC.tv webcast)
Saturday, Nov. 3
10:00 Game 8: Guelph vs. Western (CIS-SIC.tv webcast)
12:20 Game 9: Toronto vs. Victoria (CIS-SIC.tv webcast)
16:00 Game 10: UBC vs. Western (CIS-SIC.tv webcast)
17:30 Tie-Breaking Strokes (if necessary)
Sunday, Nov. 4
10:00 Bronze medal (CIS-SIC.tv webcast)
13:00 Championship final (CIS-SIC.tv webcast)
-CIS-