Women's Field Hockey

CIS women's field hockey Sunday roundup: Blues remain perfect, shutout Mustangs

CIS women's field hockey Sunday roundup: Blues remain perfect, shutout Mustangs

Photo credit Egan Davidson

McGill 3, York 0 Final   

Toronto 2, Western 0 Final   

TORONTO - The CIS defending champion Varsity Blues field hockey team blanked the Western Mustangs 2-0 on Sunday, October 16 at Downsview Park.
 
With the win, the Blues improve to 11-0 and remain atop the OUA standings.
 
Rookie midfielder Amanda Woodcroft of Waterloo, Ont., notched her seventh goal of the season, while sophomore forward and Burlington, Ont., native Alexandra Evanyshyn added her team-leading 15th goal in the win.
 
The Varsity Blues return to the field next Saturday, October 22 as they close out the regular season versus the second-place Guelph Gryphons at Downsview Park.  Game time is set for 10 a.m.

Source: Toronto Sports Info

Waterloo 4, McGill 1 Final   

UBC 1, Victoria 1 Final

VICTORIA - UBC's Robyn Pendleton (Victoria, B.C.) and Vikes defender Sam Purcell (West Vancouver, B.C.) would net one each as the Vikes and T-Birds tied 1-1 in Sunday hockey action. The T-Birds, now secured participants in the 2011 CIS National Championships, pressed hard for the go-ahead but it was the desperate efforts of the Vikes that were unfortunate not to be rewarded.
 
UVic's game tying goal was Purcell's first tally of the season. The rookie defender has played almost every minute of every game since suiting up for the Vikes.

Pendleton would notch the lone goal for the Birds continuing her streak as the Canada West leading goal scorer with 6 goals. The Birds will head to Calgary for the CIS Nationals Nov. 3-6.

The Birds had an early lead, 8 minutes in when the Vikes turned the ball over in their defensive end. A speedy Pendleton took the ball to her left and fired a reverse stick shot low and hard past Vikes keeper Alexandra Martinuik (Calgary, Alta.) to lift the Birds 1-0.

Martinuik was called upon in a series of three UBC penalty corners and a following close chance for UBC's Shanlee Johnston (Vancouver, B.C.), again on the reverse. Play mellowed out for the remainder of the first half with neither team able to generate results in the circle.

Chelsea Morton (Duncan B.C.) was the first half play maker for the Vikes, creating space for herself to go on numerous runs up the right side. An almost invisible wall seemed to guard the UBC circle as keeper Bea Francisco (Richmond, B.C.) went the first half without being tested. The Birds woulds sit on Pendleton's early goal leading into the half time break.
 
In the 47th minute, the Vikes earned their second penalty corner due to hard work up the left side by co-captain, Jasleen Aujla (Surrey, B.C.), forcing UBC's Francisco to make her first save of the game. Minutes later, UVic got on the board when rookie defender Purcell flicked the ball high into the mesh on UVic's fourth corner of the game to tie the game 1-1.
 
The Vikes would ride the momentum wave earning another series of penalty corners but the UBC defence unit did well to clear both Purcell and Whitney Siegmann's (Kelowna, B.C.) shot. UBC's best chance to take the lead was again by Pendleton, whose sheer speed shred the UVic back line but her one-on-one chance was well saved by an out-stretched toe of Martinuik.

Action continued in both ends in what would be a very entertaining second half of chances. The Vikes pressed hard and defended a penalty corner as time expired but the tie drops the Vikes to 2-7-1. The Birds remain in first place with a 5-2-2 record.
 
The Vikes play again at home in their final games of the season on Oct. 22 and Oct. 23 at 11 a.m. against the Calgary Dinos.

Source: Victoria Sports Info

Guelph 6, Queen's 2 Final   

Calgary 1, Alberta 0 Final

CALGARY – Courtney Duggan’s buzzer-beater in the 68th minute gave the Calgary Dinos a 1-0 win and a weekend sweep of the Alberta Pandas Sunday afternoon in Canada west field hockey action.

Duggan scored the lone goal of the game on a well-executed short corner play as time ticked down, beating Alberta goaltender Tory Spencer low to give the Dinos the victory and vault them past the Pandas into second place in the Canada West standings with one weekend left in the season.

Despite the loss, the Pandas qualified for the CIS championship earlier in the afternoon thanks to Victoria’s 1-1 draw with UBC. The Pandas will join the UBC Thunderbirds and the host Dinos as the three Canada West representatives at the national tournament at Hawkings Field Nov. 3-6.

“We didn’t execute the game plan, we let them muck things up a little rather than using our skill and our speed,” said Dinos head coach Jenn Swagar. “But we were able to battle through it, and we’ll correct that going forward.”

The Dinos close out the season next week at Victoria, while the Pandas also head west to take on the conference-leading UBC Thunderbirds next weekend.

Calgary netminder Stephanie Petrowitsch had a bounce-back weekend after allowing six goals in two games last week against UBC, shutting out the Pandas in both games this weekend. Petrowitsch made a couple of remarkable saves to preserve the victory, including a nice stop on a high shot off an Alberta short corner in the first half. Her best stop, however, came in the dying seconds as the Pandas pressed hard after the Calgary goal. An Alberta rush resulted in a close-in opportunity, but a sprawling Petrowitsch was able to direct it away from the net and it bounced harmlessly away.

“I thought her performance last week against UBC was a little flat and her confidence had gone down, so we spent a lot of time working on that this week,” said Swagar. “She came out with aggression and control, and she was stellar today and made that big save at the end for us.”

Calgary improves to 4-3-3 on the year, five points behind UBC for top spot in the race for the Canada West title. The Dinos will need to win both games over the Vikes, and hope the Pandas can sweep UBC, to have a chance at the conference title. Alberta drops to 4-4-2 with the loss.

GOAL SCORER
CGY - Courtney Duggan 68' (PC)

GOALKEEPERS
ALTA - Tory Spencer 70 MP, 1 GA
CGY - Steph Petrowitsch 70 MP, 0 GA

Source: Calgary Sports Info

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