Tale of the Weekend
VICTORIA – The UVic Vikes women's rugby team will by trying to capture the maximum 10 points for the second tournament in a row when they head to Abbotsford, B.C. this weekend to compete at the second of three tournaments scheduled in the Canada West 7s Series.
FULL TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
With round robin action taking place on Feb. 10 and the 11, the tournament will pit the Vikes against six schools that are all looking to take over the number one spot in the conference.
The Vikes, who went a perfect 6-0 in Edmonton to start the season, will get their tournament underway at 9:25 a.m. against the 2-4 Alberta Pandas. They round out the first day by playing the Thompson River WolfPack, who are competing in the Canada West 7s Series for the first time this coming weekend, and the 3-2-1 Calgary Dinos.
The schedule wraps up on Feb. 11 with games against the 3-3 UBC Thunderbirds, the 0-6 Fraser Valley Cascades and the 3-2-1 Lethbridge Pronghorns. With the addition of Thompson Rivers there will be no more medal round at the tournament, with the teams now playing a straight round robin schedule.
Last Time Out
Scoring 128 points and allowing just 28 in victories over Fraser Valley, Lethbridge and Calgary on the day one of the opening tournament of the Canada West 7s series last weekend served notice to the rest of the conference that the Vikes were once again poised to be serious contenders.
After handling UBC 26-7, the Vikes played their closest contest of the weekend in a 20-5 victory over the Alberta Pandas before running away from the Pronghorns by a score of 35-7 in the first-place game.
By the Numbers
13: The number of tries
Paige Farries scored over the Alberta tournament, a conference record.
162: Through their first six games, the Vikes scored the most points (209) and allowed the fewest (47) in the conference.
3: Victoria boasts the top-three scorers in the conference. Farries (65),
Emily Belchos (47) and
Kara Galbraith (42).
Coach's Take
Brittany Waters, Vikes head coach
"We had a strong start to the season in Edmonton but we are determined to continue to improve on our performances. We've identified some areas in the game where we need to improve and we will be looking to minimize errors on both attack and defence. We have also identified areas where we can really dominate and we will be focusing on these in this next tournament."
"The team played well as a unit and supported each other well on attack and defence. Playing as a team is a strength of ours and we will continue to build on this."
