VICTORIA – The University of Victoria Vikes women's field hockey team found their scoring strides today, Sept. 23, after a decisive 5-1 victory over the Calgary Dinos at Hawkings Field in Calgary. Fifth-year Vike Lindsay Cole had a three-point victory after her goal yesterday and two more in the win today.
 
Midfielder Cole buried two first-half goals, while Vikes co-captain Stefanie Langkammer buried her second of the weekend and rookies Erin Dawson and Tessa Johnston also got on the board for the Vikes. Second-year keeper Robin Fleming was the netminder for all 70 minutes, allowing just her third goal in four games played.
 
"I think the score probably wasn't indicative entirely of the game today," said Vikes head coach Lynne Beecroft. "Calgary had more penalty corners than us and they had a flurry of activity at the beginning and could have been up one or two nothing."
 
Jenna Bower was the goal scorer for Calgary, ending Fleming's chance of a shutout the 69^th minute. The Vikes improve to 2-0-2 on the season, while Calgary drop to 0-2.
 
Starting slow yesterday, the Dinos had an improved start in today's game, earning the game's first penalty corner. An early blocker save from Vikes goalie Fleming was the only thing that stood in the way of the Dinos getting off to an early lead.
 
Cole buried an early one to settle the Vikes in the 5^th minute and Langkammer doubled that lead in the 22^nd minute, deflecting a great pass into the circle from Cole.
 
Cole again adding another in the 29^th minute ripping a back-hand shot in to the top corner of the net to make it 3-0 by half time.
 
In the second half, the Dinos offence started to click, leading to a number of good scoring chances. Melanie Scholz and Lauren Hayes both had very strong games on the right side, working well together to set up a number of chances for the home side. Scholz had a great shot from the top of the circle off of a penalty corner but it was denied again by Fleming.
 
The Vikes attack broke through twice more in the second half, with goals from Erin Dawson in the 52^nd minute and Tessa Johnston in the 58^th.  
 
Dawson flipped the ball over Dinos keeper Ulrich for the Vikes' fourth goal as Ulrich had to choose between both Dawson and an unmarked Sam McCrory coming towards her. The Vikes added one penalty corner goal as rookie Johnston had her stick on the turf at the far post to deflect in for the 5-0 lead.  
 
Vikes midfielder Jenna Dhillon was a workhorse behind a lot of the Vikes attack.
 
Dinos central defender Madison MacMillan was key in the Dinos back line, slowing down a number of the Victoria attacks before the circle edge. The game finished 5-1 in favour of the visiting Vikes.
 
"I would say that we just can't give up as many penalty corners as we did today," noted Beecroft. "We need to play a bit tighter. When you are up one, or two, or three goals you tend think just offence over defence and we let one in at the end there and that can't happen."
 
"Overall though, I'm happy with the weekend. The team started to bond a bit more and played a better team game today. Sometimes we are still missing that one-two-three passing and we need more give-and-go plays or two-touch hockey but I am pleased we scored five goals. We haven't scored that many goals in Calgary in a long time. We have always had trouble scoring here, so that was really a positive."
 
The Vikes will take a weekend break to further their preparations before entertaining the UBC Thunderbirds (0-0-2) on Oct. 6-7 during the prestigious Bridgman Cup high school tournament at the University of Victoria.
 
SCORING SUMMARY
1^st Half
5' VIC – Lindsay Cole FG, 1-0 VIC
22' VIC – Stefanie Langkammer FG, 2-0 VIC
29' VIC – Lindsay Cole FG, 3-0 VIC
 
2^nd Half
52' VIC – Erin Dawson FG, 4-0 VIC
58' VIC – Tessa Johnston PC, 5-0 VIC
69' CGY – Jenna Bower FG, 5-1 VIC
 
GOALKEEPERS
CGY – Ingrid Ulrich 70 MP, 5 GA
VIC – Robin Fleming 70 MP, 1 GA