GAME 10: 2009 CIS women’s field hockey championship: Alberta win sets up all-Canada West final

VICTORIA (CIS) – The No. 5-seeded Alberta Pandas edged the top-ranked Guelph Gryphons 2-1 in the tenth and final round-robin game of the CIS women’s field hockey, Saturday afternoon, to earn a return trip to the gold-medal final.

The Pandas, who erased a one-goal deficit for the second straight game after coming back to beat the defending national champion Victoria Vikes by a similar score earlier on Saturday, finished the preliminary round in second place with a 2-2-0 record and six points.

In Sunday’s championship match at 1 p.m. Pacific Time, Alberta will face the No. 2 UBC Thunderbirds, who took first place with a 3-0-1 mark and 10 points.

The Pandas, who lost 2-1 to Victoria in last year’s final, will make their fourth all-time appearance in the title match. They captured their lone McCrae Cup in 2005 with a 2-1 penalty stroke victory over UBC, in the lone previous gold-medal affair between the two teams.

The Thunderbirds, who share the record of 11 McCrae Cup titles with Victoria, will play for CIS gold for the 17th time since the inaugural championship in 1975, and the first time since 2006.

Victoria (1-1-2) and Guelph (1-2-1) finished third and fourth, respectively, in the round-robin standings and will battle for bronze Sunday at 10 a.m. Toronto (1-3-0) places fifth and last for the second straight year.

“We had a slow start the last two days and we rose to the challenge, we’re definitely peaking at the right time,” said Alberta interim head coach A.J. Facendi.

After CIS player of the year Brienne Stairs of Kitchener, Ont., gave Guelph the early lead in the preliminaries finale scoring in the fifth minute of play, team Bunny Hughes of Victoria tied the game for the pandas in the 32nd minute and freshman Dana Morch of Calgary tallied the winner in the second half, at the 45-minute mark.

Hughes, a second-team all-Canadian, tied the contest on a great individual effort, as she deked her way through the defence for her second tally of the day. Morch potted the winner off a penalty corner.

“It was a huge game,” said Hughes. “Anything can happen as [we] saw today.”

SCORING SUMMARY
ALB: 1-1: 2
GUE: 1-0: 1

First half
5th, GUE, Brienne Stairs (2)
32nd, ALB, Bunny Hughes (2)

Second half
45th, ALB, Dana Morch (1)

Goaltenders
ALB: Tory Spencer (W, 70:00, 1 GA, 2-2-0)
GUE: Kaye McLagan (L, 70:00, 2 GA, 1-2-1)

Players of the game
ALB: Jennifer Cousineau (Coquitlam, B.C.)
GUE: Kristine Wishart (Hamilton, Ont.)

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

Pre-championship 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)

FINAL round-robin standings (after 10 of 10 games)

GP W L T GF GA PTS
1. UBC 4 3 0 1 10 3 10
2. Alberta 4 2 2 0 6 7 6
3. Victoria 4 1 1 2 3 3 5
4. Guelph 4 1 2 1 8 8 4
5. Toronto 4 1 3 0 5 10 3

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
Round-Robin 5: Victoria 0, UBC 0
Round-Robin 6: Toronto 2, Alberta 1
Round-Robin 7: Guelph 1, Victoria 1

Saturday, Nov. 7
Round-Robin 8: Alberta 2, Toronto 1
Round-Robin 9: UBC 4, Toronto 1
Round-Robin 10: Alberta 2, Guelph 1

Sunday, Nov. 8
10:00 Bronze medal: Victoria vs. Guelph
13:00 Championship final: UBC vs. Alberta

- CIS -