The University of Victoria Vikes women鈥檚 field hockey dominance of four-time CIS champion UBC Thunderbirds this season came to a crashing halt on Friday afternoon.
Sophie Jones and Hannah Haughn scored second-half goals to lift the T-Birds to a come-from-behind 2-1 win over the Vikes on Day 2 of the CIS Field Hockey sa国际传媒 championship. It was the first time UBC has managed a win over their sa国际传媒 West rivals in five outings.
Amanda Kurianowicz had opened the scoring for Victoria 16:18 into the first half after stealing the ball from Amy Jones. Sophie Jones tied it with 18 minutes to go in the game and Haughn buried the winner with 6:37 remaining.
The T-Birds did manage a 1-1 tie against the Vikes the last time out after 3-0, 2-0 and 1-0 losses in the first three matchups.
鈥淲e have been really focusing in on the process leading into the tournament,鈥� said UBC head coach Robin D鈥橝breo. 鈥淲hat I am really happy with today is that a lot of what we talked about in the game plan we were able to implement for the entire duration of the game.
鈥淚f we can continue to stick to the game plan and stay on task, I think we have the capability of performing well against any opponent here.鈥�
The Thunderbirds are four-time defending CIS champions, but feature a much younger lineup this season.
Victoria鈥檚 loss threw a wrench into the four-team tournament and it became even more muddied when Toronto defeated Guelph 2-1 in the late game. All four teams are now 1-1.
The Vikes face Guelph today at 12:30 p.m. before the T-Birds tackle Toronto at 3 p.m. to conclude the round-robin. The top two teams will play for gold on Sunday at 3 p.m., while the third and fourth-place teams battle for bronze at 12:30 p.m.
鈥淚 think UBC played better as a team tonight than us,鈥� Vikes head coach Lynee Beecroft said of the loss. 鈥淚 think we had our opportunities, but we didn鈥檛 capitalize. I think UBC has the best goalie in the tournament, but she got beat twice against Guelph so anything can happen.鈥�
Rowan Harris made seven saves for the winners, who made good on their only two good chances to beat Larissa Piva in the Vikes鈥� net.
Victoria (7-0-1 during the regular season) entered the tournament as the No. 1 seed with Toronto (11-1-0) at No. 2, UBC (4-3-1) at No. 3 and Guelph (11-1-0) at No. 4.
Guelph lost 4-3 to Toronto last week in the Ontario conference championship game, blowing a 3-0 lead.
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