The Vikes soccer team advanced to the U Sports national championships for the first time since 2012 by defeating the Mac-Ewan Griffins of Edmonton 1-0 in the sa国际传媒 West semifinals taking place in Langley.
Stelly鈥檚 Secondary graduate and conference second-team all-star Kiara Kilbey, vulture-like around the opposition crease, scored her 10th goal of the season while the miserly conference first-team all-star goalkeeper Puck Louwes, a Reynolds Secondary graduate born in Netherlands, recorded her 12th clean sheet in 16 conference games.
鈥淭his team has just been taking it one game at a time all year long and it鈥檚 paid off for us,鈥� UVic coach Tracy David said in a statement.
Just line 鈥檈m up. The next one is tonight in the sa国际传媒 West championship game, between the winner of the UBC-Trinity Western semifinal, to be followed by the U Sports national championship tournament Nov. 9-12 in Winnipeg.
Meanwhile, the UVic women鈥檚 basketball team has two of the sweetest-shooting pure outside scoring threats in sa国际传媒 West. If one of the fourth-year gunners doesn鈥檛 bury you, the other will.
Parkland grad Kristy Gallagher put home 30 points, including hitting on four of five three-pointers, as the Vikes defeated the University of Brandon Bobcats 93-87 Friday in the Manitoba city.
That comes after Amira Giannattasio鈥檚 36-point outside touch in a 78-64 home victory last weekend over UBC-Okanagan, which was the most points scored by a Vikes player in 68 games.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a player鈥檚 game and Kristy made plays tonight,鈥� Vikes coach Dani Sinclair said from Brandon.
鈥淜risty and Amira facilitate each other. Even on a night when the ball was just not falling for Amira [Giannattasio was held to eight points], she does so many other things well, like at the front of our press tonight.鈥�
Ashlyn Day, a rookie out of Kelowna, added 19 points and third-year forward Marissa Dheensaw 14 as the Vikes moved to 3-0 in conference play. The Bobcats dropped to 0-3.
鈥淲e have multiple players capable of scoring big,鈥� Sinclair said.
Katie Langdon added eight points and Morgan Roskelly six for UVic.
鈥淚 am happy with the people we have coming off the bench,鈥� Sinclair said.
The score was tied 40-40 at the half.
鈥淲e gave up way too many points early tonight,鈥� Sinclair said. 鈥淲e are still a work in progress. We are all figuring it out as we go.鈥�
The Vikes men, however, couldn鈥檛 hold up their end as the Bobcats (1-2) defeated UVic 89-82 in sa国际传媒 West basketball at Brandon to drop the Vikes to 1-2 in conference play.
