Toronto tops Guelph in all-OUA tilt at FHC women’s field hockey championship

TORONTO (CIS) – The host University of Toronto Varsity Blues notched a convincing 4-1 victory over their OUA rival Guelph Gryphons on Day 2 of the 40th CIS-FHC field hockey championship at Back Campus Fields.

It was the 11th time the OUA champion Blues, now 16-0-0 on the season, met Guelph at the national tournament. Toronto holds a 6-4-1 head-to-head advantage over the reigning four-time national bronze medalist Gryphons at the CIS championship.

The Varsity Blues (2-0) currently lead the standings ahead of Victoria (1-0), UBC (0-1) and Guelph (0-2).

"I thought we played really well," said John DeSouza, who was named the 2014 CIS coach of the year on Wednesday night. "It's the fourth time we've played Guelph this year.  We didn't deal with the press as well as we should have and we turned the ball over at critical times, but we stayed composed and finished our chances."

The Gryphons had three penalty corner opportunities in the first eight minutes but Blues goalie Madeleine Cho (Vancouver) came up with some big saves to keep the game scoreless.

The Blues opened the scoring in the 14th minute when rookie Nikki Woodcroft of Waterloo, Ont., deked around a Gryphons defender and passed to veteran Alex Thicke (North Vancouver) in front of the net for the one-time goal.

Toronto extended their lead in the 29th minute when second-year forward Anna McNeil of Sutton, Ont., tipped in a nice pass from 2014 CIS player of the year Amanda Woodcroft (Waterloo) in the 29th minute.

Second-year forward Lauren Sudac of Burlington, Ont., notched her second of the tournament two minutes later to give the host Blues a 3-0 lead at the midway point of the match.

Guelph had numerous penalty corners and got on the board in the 54th minute as rookie midfielder Danica Davies of Port Coquitlam, B.C., tipped in shot at the side of the net.

Toronto held strong with some excellent play from Cho and third-year forward Emma Stairs of Kitchener, Ont., rounded out the scoring with a hard shot off a penalty corner in the 69th minute.

The host Blues (2-0) wrap up the round robin versus the third-seeded Victoria Vikes (1-0) tomorrow (Nov. 1) at 1 p.m., while the Gryphons (0-2) are set to take on the defending champion UBC Thunderbirds (0-1) at 3 p.m. Both games will be streamed live on CIS-SIC.tv.

The top two finishers after tomorrow's preliminary round will advance to the final and the bottom two teams battling for bronze on Sunday.

Source: CIS