GUELPH, Ont. (CIS) – The fourth-seeded Victoria Vikes improved to 2-1 in round-robin play at the CIS women's field hockey championship with a dominating 5-0 win over the No. 5 Waterloo Warriors, Friday afternoon.

With one game left in the preliminary round, the Vikes have six points and are tied atop the standings with Toronto (2-0) and UBC (2-1). Victoria faces defending national champion UBC Saturday at 12:20 p.m. in its round-robin finale.

Waterloo, now 0-2, has two games remaining on Saturday. The OUA bronze medallist Warriors battle Toronto at 10 a.m. and Guelph at 4 p.m.

The Vikes got offensive contributions from five different players in the win and were up 4-0 by going into the halftime break. Goalie Kaitlyn Williams of White Rock, B.C., wasn't too busy in the contest but came up big when she was needed.

Victoria's short corner unit was explosive and was responsible for three of their five goals.

“We practice them every day and do extra training in the mornings, so that definitely helps,” commented Victoria's player of the game Kyla Kirby on the penalty corners. “We stick to a few that are really similar and then we switch it up depending on how the defence runs and what we feel works.”

The Vikes opened the scoring on the first short corner eight minutes into the game when third-year forward Courtney Low of Richmond, B.C., redirected the ball past goalie Bronwen Clayfield-Jewett of Waterloo, Ont., who was in position to make the save on the first shot.

All-Canadian Perri Espeseth of Duncan, B.C., quarterbacked the strong Vikes team, being heavily involved in both the offence and defence.

The 2-0 goal came in the 20th minute when Espeseth carried the ball through the middle before feeding it into the circle to Low, who one-timed it right onto the stick of Whitney Siegmann of Kelowna, B.C., who put it past a sprawling Clayfield-Jewett.

Kirby, a CIS all-Canadian, blasted the ball into the Waterloo net off a shot from the top of the circle during a sort corner to give Victoria a 3-0 lead in the 25th minute.

Just before the half, sophomore Danielle Hennig of Kelowna put a powerful reverse shot past Clayfield-Jewett for a 4-0 advantage.

Espeseth got a goal of her own three minutes into the second period on a perfectly executed give-and-go short corner, finishing with the Vikes captain one-timing the ball into the far corner.

The Vikes' powerful hits bode well for them as their quick transitions make them a dangerous offensive breakout team. This also is threatening in the circle due to their fearless ability to get their stick on the ball to redirect it.

Waterloo was not without chances. Fourth-year forward Meghan Bester of Waterloo created scoring opportunities by driving the ball along the baseline, past Victoria defenders, and crossing it. She was named player of the game for the Warriors.

Sophomore Katherine Farrugia of Burlington, Ont., kept the Waterloo defence strong in the second half, helping to keep the Vikes to just one goal.

GAME NOTES: This contest saw the longest-serving CIS women's field hockey head coach, Victoria's Lynne Beecroft in her 27th season at the helm, go up against one of the newest CIS coaches, Waterloo first-year mentor Steven Rodrigues.

SCORING SUMMARY
VIC 4-1: 5
WAT 0-0: 0

First half
8th, VIC, Courtney Low (1)
20th, VIC, Whitney Siegmann (1)
25th, VIC, Kyla Kirby (1)
33rd VIC, Danielle Hennig (1)


Second half
38th, VIC, Perri Espeseth (2)

Goaltenders
VIC: Kaitlyn Williams (W, 70:00, 0 GA, 2-1)
WAT: Bronwen Clayfield-Jewett (L, 70:00, 5 GA, 0-2)

Players of the game
VIC: Kyla Kirby (Victoria, B.C.)
WAT: Meghan Bester (Waterloo, Ont.)