The bronze medal by host sa国际传媒 in women鈥檚 field hockey at the 2015 Toronto Pan Am Games was solely a consolation in more ways than one, as only gold would have sent sa国际传媒 to the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics.
The road to Tokyo 2020 has begun for sa国际传媒, and a big taste of it can be had today through Sunday at the CIS national championship, featuring eight players who have a combined 98 caps. That list includes Kathleen Leahy and Rosie Beale of the host University of Victoria Vikes and 2015 Pan Am Games players Hannah Haughn of UBC and Amanda Woodcroft of the University of Toronto.
Also performing in the CIS championship will be nine players from the Canadian national junior or development team programs, including Alexis De Armond and Lindsay Cole from the UVic Vikes.
鈥淚f we all stick together over the next four-five years, we will be a very strong national side for the next cycle,鈥� said U of T captain Woodcroft.
Tegan Stairs of the U of T, who has 24 caps for sa国际传媒, was named CIS player of the year on Wednesday ahead of the national championship.
Leahy was named winner of the CIS Gail Wilson Award for outstanding service to the sport on and off the pitch. She not only stars for the Vikes, but Leahy also coaches her alma mater Oak Bay High School and in the Victoria Junior League and UVic Rising Stars program. Leahy is also heavily involved in Special Olympics. She is also a star in the classroom, where Leahy maintains an 8.17 grade-point average on the 9.0 UVic scale.
Named to the all-Canadian team were Leahy, Haughn, Woodcroft, Stairs, Stephanie Snyder of Waterloo, Kylie Nabata of McGill, Erin Houle and Allison Chute of Guelph and Jessica Britton, Janelle Rice and Beckett Frisch of Calgary.
UVic head coach Lynne Beecroft, a 1984 Olympian as a player, was decorated Wednesday with the Marina Van der Merwe Award as repeat winner as CIS coach of the year and for the fifth time in her 32-season UVic coaching career. The award is named after the former Canadian Olympic team coach Van der Merwe, who this year was inducted into sa国际传媒鈥檚 Sports Hall of Fame. Beecroft, who guided undefeated UVic to the 2015 sa国际传媒 West championship, has coached the Vikes to 11 CIS national titles.
UVic coach Beecroft鈥檚 quest for a dandy dozen CIS titles begins today when the host and top-ranked Vikes meet Toronto at 6:30 p.m. Standing in the way in the opener are the second-ranked Varsity Blues.
鈥淏eing part of the national team at the Pan Am Games over the summer helped me lead the way on the field this year [in CIS play],鈥� said Woodcroft, four times an all-Canadian in her five-season CIS career.
鈥淲e have to stay in the process and be prepared and bring everything to each game.鈥�
The national tournament commences today with the No. 3 UBC Thunderbirds playing the No. 4 Guelph Gryphons at 4 p.m.
The Vikes and Thunderbirds meet in an all-sa国际传媒 West clash Friday at 4 p.m., followed by the all-Ontario derby between Toronto and Guelph at 6:30 p.m. The round-robin portion concludes Saturday with the Vikes playing the Gryphons at 12:30 p.m. and the Thunderbirds meeting the Varsity Blues at 3 p.m.
The top-two teams advance to the gold-medal final Sunday at 3 p.m., while the bottom two teams play in the bronze-medal consolation at 12:30 p.m.
CIS RUGBY: Canadian U-20 player Gabrielle Senft of the UVic Vikes, a fine arts major from Regina, was named Wednesday as CIS women鈥檚 rugby rookie of the year. National team player and rookie Vikes head coach Brittany Waters, in a statement, described Senft as 鈥渄ynamic and strong鈥� . . . The future for Waters鈥� rising Vikes looks bright with sophomore Jess Neilson, a member of the Maple Leafs national development team, named a first-team all-Canadian and the freshman Senft a second-team all-Canadian . . . sa国际传媒 West champion UVic, ranked No. 4 and making its first CIS tournament appearance in a decade since hosting in 2005, opens at the 2015 CIS championship in the quarter-finals today at Kingston, Ont., against Quebec-champion and No. 5 Concordia.
