GAME 4: 2009 CIS women’s field hockey championship: Dellandrea’s hat trick leads Guelph to rebound win

VICTORIA (CIS) – Freshman Katelin Dellandrea tallied a hat trick to lead the top-seeded Guelph Gryphons to a convincing 5-2 victory over the No. 4 Toronto Varsity Blues in the fourth and final round-robin match of day one at the 2009 CIS women’s field hockey championship, Thursday night.

The highest-scoring game at the national tournament since 2003 was a rematch of last Sunday’s OUA final, won 1-0 in overtime by Guelph.

The offensive outburst could prove crucial later this weekend for the Gryphons (1-1), who dropped their championship opener 3-1 to UBC earlier on Thursday. Goal differential serves as a tie-breaker at the end of round-robin play to determine who moves on to the title match.

After tasting defeat for the first time this season against the No. 2 Thunderbirds, the Gryphons took out their frustrations on their OUA rivals scoring four times in the first 21 minutes of the duel.

Dellandrea opened the scoring in the fifth minute with her first goal of the night. The OUA champions all but put the game out of reach in the 11th minute with back-to-back scores from CIS player of the year Brienne Stairs of Kitchener, Ont., and five-time first-team all-Canadian Kristine Wishart of Hamilton.

Dellandrea, a native of Guelph, made it 4-0 in the 21st minute and completed the hat trick in the second half with a tally at the 66-minute mark.

“We needed to prove to ourselves, and to Toronto, our biggest contender, that we’re here to win,” said Dellandrea, who received game-MVP honours for the victors.

Toronto was able to finally put points on the board in the 31st minute when a penalty stroke from Kristen Shier of North Vancouver, B.C., gave the Varsity Blues their first goal of the tournament.

The Blues struck again through Richmond Hill, Ont., native Natalie Provenzano’s 60th minute strike, but it was too little too late.

Toronto player-of-the-game honours were presented to second-team all-Canadian forward Kyesia O’Neale of Mississauga, Ont.

The seven-goal affair was the highest-scoring game at the CIS championship since UBC defeated York 8-0 in the 2003 semi-final.

The Gryphons will look to build on their 1-1 opening-day record when they take on the reigning CIS champion UVic Vikes (1-0) at 4 p.m. Pacific Time on Friday. The Varsity Blues (0-2) will face the Alberta Pandas (0-1) at 12:20 p.m.

In the only other duel scheduled for Friday, tournament host Victoria is set to square off with UBC (2-0) at 10 a.m. in a battle of undefeated teams.

TOURNEY NOTE: All five participating teams at the CIS championship face each of their rivals once in round-robin play from Thursday to Saturday, with the two teams with the best records at the end of the preliminary round advancing to Sunday’s national final at 1 p.m. Pacific Time.

SCORING SUMMARY
GUE: 4-1: 5
TOR: 1-1: 2

First half
5th, GUE, Katelin Dellandrea (1)
11th, GUE, Brienne Stairs (1)
11th, GUE, Kristine Wishart (1)
21st, GUE, Katelin Dellandrea (2)
31rd, TOR, Kristen Shier (1)

Second half
60th, TOR, Natalie Provenzano (1)
66th, GUE, Katelin Dellandrea (3)

Goaltenders
GUE: Dorothy Marcy (W, 36:00, 1 GA, 1-1)
GUE: Kaye McLagan (34:00, 1 GA)
TOR: Samantha Lyzun (L, 23:00, 4 GA, 0-2)
TOR: Kathryn Williams (47:00, 1 GA)

Players of the game
GUE: Katelin Dellandrea (Guelph, Ont.)
TOR: Kyesia O’Neale (Mississauga, Ont.)

CHAMPIONSHIP SEEDING, STANDINGS & SCHEDULE (all times LOCAL: PACIFIC)

Seeding

1. Guelph Gryphons (OUA champions)
2. UBC Thunderbirds (Canada West champions)
3. Victoria Vikes (second place Canada West)
4. Toronto Varsity Blues (OUA finalists)
5. Alberta Pandas (third place Canada West)

Round-robin standings (after 4 of 10 games)

GP W L T GF GA PTS
1. UBC 2 2 0 0 6 2 6
2. Victoria 1 1 0 0 1 0 3
3. Guelph 2 1 1 0 6 5 3
4. Alberta 1 0 1 0 1 3 0
5. Toronto 2 0 2 0 2 6 0

Thursday, Nov. 5
Round-Robin 1: UBC 3, Guelph 1
Round-Robin 2: Victoria 1, Toronto 0
Round-Robin 3: UBC 3, Alberta 1
Round-Robin 4: Guelph 5, Toronto 2

Friday, Nov. 6
10:00 Round-Robin 5: Victoria vs. UBC
12:20 Round-Robin 6: Toronto vs. Alberta
16:00 Round-Robin 7: Guelph vs. Victoria

Saturday, Nov. 7
10:00 Round-Robin 8: Victoria vs. Alberta
12:20 Round-Robin 9: UBC vs. Toronto
16:00 Round-Robin 10: Guelph vs. Alberta
17:30 Tie-Breaking Strokes (if necessary)

Sunday, Nov. 8
10:00 Bronze medal
13:00 Championship final

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