VICTORIA – The championship banner won't be presented until tomorrow and University of Victoria Vikes head coach Brittany Waters won't let her players celebrate just yet, but the Vikes left Wallace Field this evening with the comfort of knowing that they are the three-time defending women's rugby 7s Canada West conference champions.

"I'm very proud of our girls for what we have accomplished so far," said Waters. "That being said, we want to win this tournament. Each game is also a new opportunity to be successful and get better.

"We will celebrate after our games tomorrow, but we will come out focused for all of our games."

The Vikes have a date with the University of Alberta Pandas in the first semifinal tomorrow (11:14 a.m.). It will be a rematch of the final from the Alberta tournament and a rematch of the semi from the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds tournament. The Vikes picked up victories in both.

"Alberta is a quality team that is one of the best in the league at the breakdown, especially on the defensive end," said Waters. "We will need to work on our threes and secure the ball anytime we go forward against them."

The Vikes are in the position to hoist their third consecutive banner after they cooked the competition in Pool A.

In case they slipped up and lost a game, potentially tying with another program for top spot in the pool, the Vikes made sure they would have the edge in any tiebreakers with their 60-0 starching of the University of British Columbia Okanagan Heat in their first game of the day.

Up next were the University of Calgary Dinos.

Fifth-year centre Paige Farries missed the UBC tournament, but returned to the lineup and got the Vikes rolling with a pair of tries in the first half. The Dinos responded with a pair of tries from Julia Omokhuale in the second half, but Sasha Guedes and
Maggie MacKinnon put the game out of reach.

"What I love about this group is that every game, someone new steps up. Because of that, we were able to work with a lot of different combos today," said Waters. "We knew this pool was going to be tough to come out of today because all three teams are strong and can move the ball with speed out wide. We had a lot of fight around the breakdown today which allowed us to keep possession and score some tries."

The University of Lethbridge Pronghorns dropped a tilt to the Dinos earlier in the day, which meant they were battling to get into second in the pool when the final game of the day against the Vikes took place.

Three different Vikes – Shalaya Valenzuela, Renee Gonzalez and Callie Harder – produced tries and lifted the Vikes to the 15-5 win to clinch top spot in the pool and the conference banner.

"I thought Shalaya was very impressive today. Obviously getting Paige back is huge with all of her experience and Ashah has been so consistent all year, to name a few. It was truly a great day by all 14 of our players," said Waters.

The Thunderbirds will host the Dinos in the other semifinal, which begins after the Vikes' semi at 11:36 a.m. The Canada West banner will be presented to the Vikes following the conclusion of the tournament tomorrow, roughly around 2:30 p.m. All of tomorrow's games are available to watch through our webcast.

RESULTS
UBC Okanagan Heat (0) vs Victoria Vikes (60)
              1            2            T
UBCO    0            0            0
VIC        31          29          60
Scoring summary:
VIC Try - #12 Maelle Reed (#5 Alexie Pusch convert) VIC 7-0
VIC Try - #6 Ashah Payson (#5 Alexie Pusch convert) VIC 14-0
VIC Try - #7 Shalaya Valenzuela (#5 Alexie Pusch convert) VIC 21-0
VIC Try - #5 Alexie Pusch (#5 Alexie Pusch convert missed) VIC 26-0
VIC Try - #13 Tjammie Ko (#5 Alexie Pusch convert missed) VIC 31-0
HALF
VIC Try - #6 Ashah Payson (#5 Alexie Pusch convert) VIC 38-0
VIC Try - #2 Renee Gonzalez (#5 Alexie Pusch convert missed) VIC 43-0
VIC Try - #13 Tjammie Ko (#5 Alexie Pusch convert missed) VIC 48-0
VIC Try - #11 Nicola Smith (#11 Nicola Smith convert) VIC 55-0
VIC Try - #10 Ella O'Regan (#11 Nicola Smith convert missed) VIC 60-0
 
Calgary Dinos (12) vs Victoria Vikes (24)
              1            2            T
CGY       0            12          12
VIC        12          12          24
Scoring summary:
VIC Try - #14 Paige Farries (#8 Brooke Bazian convert missed) VIC 5-0
VIC Try - #14 Paige Farries (#8 Brooke Bazian convert) VIC 12-0
HALF
VIC Try - #9 Sasha Guedes (#9 Sasha Guedes convert missed) VIC 17-0
CGY Try - #5 Julia Omokhuale (#10 Patricia Lively convert missed) VIC 17-5
VIC Try - #4 Maggie MacKinnon (#5 Alexie Pusch convert) VIC 24-5
CGY Try - #5 Julia Omokhuale (#10 Patricia Lively convert) VIC 24-12

Lethbridge Pronghorns (5) vs Victoria Vikes (15)
              1            2            T
LET        0            5            5
VIC        10          5            15
Scoring summary:
VIC Try - #7 Shalaya Valenzuela (#5 Alexie Pusch convert missed) VIC 5-0
VIC Try - #2 Renee Gonzalez (#5 Alexie Pusch convert missed) VIC 10-0
HALF
LET Try - #21 Hailey Driscoll (#10 Caitlin Sears convert missed) VIC 10-5
VIC Try - #3 Callie Harder (#4 Maggie MacKinnon convert missed) VIC 15-5

Tournament standings – Day 1

POOL A
TEAM    WINS    LOSSES TIES       POINTS
VIC        3            0            0            12
CGY       2            1            0            8
LET        1            2            0            4
UBCO    0            3            0            0

POOL B
TEAM    WINS    LOSSES TIES       POINTS
UBC       3            0            0            12
ALB        2            1            0            8
TWU     1            2            0            4
UFV       0            3            0            0