From club to country, Anna Mollenhauer is doing it all in field hockey.
Over the summer it was for sa国际传媒 at the World Cup in Spain and Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England. Looming are the qualifiers for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
This weekend, it is varsity duty, as Mollenhauer was named U Sports player of the year Thursday for a third time as the fifth-year standout prepares to lead the University of Victoria Vikes into the best-of-three national championship final against the York University Lions. The first game is Friday at 4 p.m., the second game Saturday at 3 p.m. and the third game, if required, Sunday at 3 p.m., all on the UVic turf field.
Mollenhauer, daughter of two-time Olympian Nancy Mollenhauer [nee Charlton], is a dominant two-way player who is both a mobile offensive threat with eight goals this season and a get-back shutdown defender as the Vikes recorded five shutouts.
The Vikes are a dynasty in every sense of the word and are after their fourth consecutive U Sports national title and 15th overall. York is in quest of its first national championship. UVic went 7-0-1 to win sa国际传媒 West. The Lions were 7-2-1 in the regular season and won the best-of-three Ontario final 2-1.
The Vikes defeated the Toronto Varsity Blues in three games in last year’s U Sports championship final. Head coach Lynne Beecroft, an Olympian during her playing career, has guided UVic to all 14 of its national titles and her team is in the national championships for the 36th time in her nearly four-decade tenure on the Vikes bench.
