OTTAWA (CIS) – The seeding and schedule were announced on Sunday for the 41st Canadian Interuniversity Sport – Field Hockey Canada women's championship, which gets under way later this week in Victoria.
The four-team tournament, hosted by the University of Victoria for the second time in three years and for the seventh time overall, kicks off on Thursday and concludes Sunday with the gold-medal final at 3 p.m. Pacific Time All eight games from the tourney will be webcast live on CIS-SIC.tv.
Competing for this season's McCrae Cup will be the top-seeded and host Victoria Vikes (Canada West champions), No. 2 Toronto Varsity Blues (OUA champs), No. 3 UBC Thunderbirds (Canada West runners-up) and No. 4 Guelph Gryphons (OUA silver medallists).
UBC hopes to add to a pair of impressive national marks next weekend as the Thunderbirds have captured a record 16 McCrae Cup titles in their storied history, including the last four in a row, also an all-time standard.
This season, however, archrival Victoria has dominated UBC in head-to-head competition with three wins and one draw in four Canada West duels. In the OUA conference, Toronto and Guelph finished the regular season with identical 11-1 records and met in the league final, with the Varsity Blues erasing a 3-0 deficit to stun the Gryphons 4-3.
Victoria and Toronto boasts 11 McCrae Cup titles apiece, while Guelph's best finish at the CIS tournament is a silver medal in 2007.
All contenders will play each other once in the preliminary round this week, with the top two finishers advancing to the final and the bottom two teams battling for bronze. Thursday's opening day will see UBC take on Guelph at 4 p.m. and Victoria face Toronto at 6:30 p.m.
NOTES: A complete championship preview will follow on Tuesday... The 2015 CIS individual award winners and all-Canadian teams will be announced on Wednesday.
SEEDING
1. Victoria Vikes (Canada West champions: 7-0-1 regular season / no playoffs in CW)
2. Toronto Varsity Blues (OUA champions: 11-1-0 regular season / 2-0 playoffs)
3. UBC Thunderbirds (Canada West runners-up: 4-3-1 regular season / no playoffs in CW)
4. Guelph Gryphons (OUA silver medallists: 11-1-0 regular season / 1-1 playoffs)
CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE (all times Pacific Time)
Wednesday, Nov. 4
18:30 All-Canadian Awards Banquet (Harbour Towers Hotel)
Thursday, Nov. 5
16:00 Game 1: Guelph vs. UBC (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
18:30 Game 2: Toronto vs. Victoria (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
Friday, Nov. 6
16:00 Game 3: UBC vs. Victoria (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
18:30 Game 4: Guelph vs. Toronto (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
Saturday, Nov. 7
12:30 Game 5: Guelph vs. Victoria (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
15:00 Game 6: UBC vs. Toronto (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
Sunday, Nov. 8
12:30 Bronze medal (www.CIS-SIC.tv)
15:00 Championship (www.CIS-SIC.tv)