VICTORIA - Head coach #
Lynne Beecroft#'s hard work finally started to show on the results board last week, as the Vikes women's field hockey team earned their first three points of the season. The young UVic squad split the weekend with Alberta on home soil, with the win, 1-0, coming on Sunday, Sept. 25. Defender and 2010 All-Canadian #
Kyla Kirby# was the lone goal scorer after she finished on a penalty corner.
Following a 2-1 pre-season record, the Vikes were nonetheless disapointed after losing their first three games of the Canada West Season. In an unusual start to the field hockey season, both Alberta and Calgary defeated their western rivals, UBC and UVic, respectively. Between the Vikes and T-Birds over 30 CIS championship banners have been won.
This weekend the Vikes will face off with the UBC Thunderbirds. Both teams are used to trading national titles back and forth, only enhancing the on-going rivalry between the two sides. UBC boasts a strong squad containing several Team Canada members, partly due to the nature of sharing the same pitch with the national squad.
Former national team forward sensation,
Robyn Pendleton (Victoria, B.C.) will be UBC's most potent weapon. Pendleton, who had a brief stint with the Vikes in 2006, racked up three goals last weekend against Calgary and since entering the Canada West has been honoured as Rookie of the Year, CIS All-Canadian, CIS Nationals tournament XI and CIS Nationals tournament MVP. Pendleton will be joined by other national squad members 2010 CIS Rookie of the Year
Natalie Sourisseau (Kelowna, B.C.),
Poonam Sandhu (Vancouver, B.C.),
Sara McManus (Delta, B.C.) and junior national team midfielder
Sarah Keglowitsch (Shawnigan Lake, B.C.).
The Vikes will have their own flavour of national team flare, as Vikes goalkeeper #
Kaitlyn Williams#, will be joining them in Vancouver. Williams has been living and training in Vancouver in preparation for the Pan American Games but was released to compete last weekend in Victoria against the Pandas, as well as this weekend in Vancouver against the Thunderbirds. Williams will back the Vikes up between the pipes but it will take leadership from defender and co-captain #
Jasleen Aujla#, forward #
Courtney Low# and forward #
Whitney Siegmann# to get the Vikes ready to take some points from the Birds.
The epic field hockey rivalry between the Birds and Vikes will continue on this year as the teams face off this Saturday and Sunday (Oct. 1 and 2) at UBC's Wright Field. Both games will begin at 1:00 p.m. PDT.
