That鈥檚 because a Vikes鈥� win over the Pandas, coupled with a Trinity Western victory over the UBC Thunderbirds in the other semi, would set up a fourth meeting of the season between the Vikes and Spartans and rematch of last fall鈥檚 CIS national semifinal, won of course by the defending CIS national champion Spartans.
鈥淥h, we know Trinity very well, and they were strong in the fall and they鈥檒l be strong again now,鈥� said Vikes head coach Tracy David, whose club went on to earn the bronze medal at the national tournament last November at Centennial Stadium.
The Vikes lost all three matches 鈥� regular season, sa国际传媒 West playoffs and CIS national semi 鈥� to Trinity Western by one goal. So a little revenge this weekend at Centennial Stadium would cap off a strong season by the Vikes.
鈥淲e expect to have strong weekend and, like I told the girls, this was a turning point in our season last spring,鈥� said David, whose club went 9-2-1 in the sa国际传媒 West regular season. 鈥淲e beat UBC and we hadn鈥檛 beaten them all year, and when we met them again in the sa国际传媒 West playoffs, we beat them again, so we take this tournament very seriously. It鈥檚 a good building block for us.鈥�
The Vikes have several key building blocks already in place with the likes of midfielder Mallory Hackett, striker Emma Greig, defender Brigitte Greig and midfielder Jaclyn Sawicki, the Coquitlam native who spent time with sa国际传媒鈥檚 Under-20 team last summer.
And the Vikes hit this weekend in top form, having spent two weeks last month in England playing semi-pro women鈥檚 teams. UVic was victorious in one of the four matches in England, but learned a ton going up against strong teams such as Doncaster, Everton, Birmingham City and Chelsea.
鈥淓ven though we lost by some lopsided scores, the experience was invaluable for the girls, and we got progressively better as the trip went on and even beat Chelsea in our last game,鈥� David said. 鈥淏ut the players in the U.K. are just technically better than we are. So the girls learned a lot and hopefully can bring a bit of that forward into this weekend.鈥�
The UBC-Trinity game kicks off the tournament at 10 a.m. today, and that鈥檚 followed by the Vikes-Pandas game at 2 p.m. On Sunday the two semifinal losers will play at 10 a.m., with the gold-medal game going at 2 p.m.
On the men鈥檚 side of the tournament, the defending CIS champs will also be in attendance. UBC, which finished the regular season undefeated at 11-0-3 before claiming the national title, will open against Trinity Western at noon.
Then Bruce Wilson鈥檚 Vikes will take to the field against the Fraser Valley Cascades at 4 p.m.
The men鈥檚 bronze-medal game goes at noon, followed by the gold-medal game at 4 p.m.
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