Photo credit Armando Tura
VICTORIA (CIS) – The tournament host University of Victoria Vikes blanked the Waterloo Warriors 3-0 Friday night in their second round-robin match of the Field Hockey Canada – CIS women’s championship, setting up an all-Canada West gold-medal final between UVic and the UBC Thunderbirds on Sunday. The conference rivals will first meet Saturday afternoon to close out the preliminary round.
The Vikes, who edged UBC for the Canada West banner this season, are currently tied with their archrivals with a 2-0 record at the national championship. Guelph and Waterloo are both 0-2 and can no longer hope to catch their western opponents. The OUA squads will battle for bronze on Sunday.
The final day of round-robin action on Saturday will see Waterloo and Guelph face off at 1 p.m. PT and Victoria and UBC square off at 3 p.m. PT.
Three Canada West first-team all-stars scored for the Vikes against waterloo, beginning with Kathleen Leahy in the third minute and a second-half goal from each of Kyla Kirby and Amanda Kurianowicz. Sheriden Goodmanson tallied her second straight shutout as Victoria dominated play generating 10 penalty corners to Waterloo’s zero.
All-Canadian Leahy got things off with a bang firing a reverse-stick shot top shelf in the opening minutes of play. The early goal settled all nerves for the home team as the Warriors struggled to intercept several precise passing sequences performed by Victoria.
In the 26th minute the Vikes almost had their second goal when defender Andrea Jones blasted a ball from outside the 23-meter area. The ball took a touch off Waterloo’s Ally Kocukov in the circle and was on route for goal but a last minute clear and a post kept the Vikes off the board.
Waterloo keeper Nickole LeVear made four quality saves to keep the Gryphons within one entering half.
In the second half the Vikes opened with back-to-back penalty corners. A nice give-and-go between Alexis Veljacic and Kirby set up Victoria’s 2-0 lead at the 37-minute mark.
The Warriors continued to show their competitive spirit battling hard and thwarting several baseline attempts thanks to some solid tackling from Steph Snyder and Katrina Schigas.
In the 44th minute the Vikes capitalized once more on a penalty corner after a short ball to Leahy was fired to the far post. Marin Davidson tried to deflect the initial shot but it was Kurinaowicz who slotted the lose ball home for her second goal of the tournament.
Waterloo did well to fend off the Victoria’s remaining two corners but were unable to generate any offence of their own. Leahy was named player of the game for the second-straight time, while Kocukov was given the honours for Waterloo. The Vikes finished the game with a 3-0 win and earned three points to tie UBC with six points after two days of play.
Both Saturday games will be streamed live at http://cis-sic.tv.
SCORING SUMMARY
VIC: 1-2: 3
WAT: 0-0: 0
First half
VIC: Kathleen Leahy (2), 3rd minute
Second Half
VIC: Kyla Kirby (1), 37th minute
VIC: Amanda Kurianowicz (2), 44th minute
Goaltenders
VIC: Sheriden Goodmanson (W, 70:00, 0 GA, 2-0)
WAT: Nikole LeVear (L, 70:00, 0 GA, 0-2)
Players of the game
UBC: Kathleen Leahy (Victoria, B.C.)
GUE: Ally Kocukov (Mississauga, Ont.)
STANDINGS, SCHEDULE & RESULTS (PACIFIC TIME)
Round-robin standings
GP W L T GF GA PTS
1. UBC 2 2 0 0 17 1 6
2. Victoria 2 2 0 0 6 0 6
3. Guelph 2 0 2 0 1 10 0
4. Waterloo 2 0 2 0 0 13 0
NOTE: 3 points for a win and 1 point for a tie.
Thursday, Oct. 31
16:30 Game 1: UBC 10, Waterloo 0
18:30 Game 2: Victoria 3, Guelph 0
Friday, Nov. 1
16:30 Game 3: UBC 7, Guelph 1
18:30 Game 4: Victoria 3, Waterloo 0
Saturday, Nov. 2
13:00 Game 5: Guelph vs. Waterloo (CIS-SIC.tv)
15:00 Game 6: Victoria vs. UBC (CIS-SIC.tv)
Sunday, Nov. 3
13:00 Bronze medal: Guelph vs. Waterloo (CIS-SIC.tv)
15:00 Championship final: Victoria vs. UBC (CIS-SIC.tv)
Note: All games will be played at UVIC Field 1.
About Canadian Interuniversity Sport
Canadian Interuniversity Sport is the national governing body of university sport in Canada. Every year, 11,000 student-athletes and 700 coaches from 54 universities and four regional associations vie for 21 national championships in 12 different sports. CIS also provides high performance international opportunities for Canadian student-athletes at Winter and Summer Universiades, as well as numerous world university championships. For further information, visit www.cis-sic.ca or follow us on:
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