2010 CIS women’s field hockey championship: Seeding and schedule announced

Photo credit Guelph Athletics

OTTAWA (CIS) – For the second straight year, the University of Guelph Gryphons have been established tournament favourites going into the Canadian Interuniversity Sport women's field hockey championship.

Guelph will host the five-team tournament for the first time in history this week. The action gets under way Thursday with the first of three days of round-robin play and culminates Sunday at 1 p.m. with the gold-medal final.

The All-Canadian Awards Banquet will be held Wednesday night.

The top-seeded Gryphons hope for a better result than a year ago in Victoria when they settled for a disappointing fourth place, their third such finish in four previous appearances at the championship. Guelph's best result to date remains a silver medal in 2007.

Also returning from a year ago are the defending national champion UBC Thunderbirds, seeded No. 2 this week; the third-seeded Toronto Varsity Blues, who finished fifth in 2009; and the Victoria Vikes, ranked No. 4 a year after claiming CIS bronze.

Between the three of them, UBC (12), Victoria (11) and Toronto (10) have captured 33 of 35 CIS titles since the inaugural national championship in 1975. The T-Birds claimed their record 12th McCrae Cup in 2009 thanks to a dominating 6-0 gold-medal win over Alberta.

The Waterloo Warriors round out the list of participating teams for this week's tournament. Waterloo will be making its first appearance since a fourth-place finish in 2004.

The 2010 tourney kicks off with a bang Thursday at 9:50 a.m. when No. 1 Guelph battles No. 2 UBC.

Every team will face each of its rivals once in the 10-game round-robin competition. The top two squads at the end of the preliminary stage will square off in Sunday's final.

Guelph goes into the competition sporting a sparkling 15-1 overall record, including a 3-2 defeat of Toronto (14-2) in the OUA final.

UBC went 9-1-2 this fall to finish first in Canada West, while second-place Victoria kept a 6-4-2 mark. There are no playoffs in the CWUAA, where the top team at the end of regular season play is crowned conference champion.

Waterloo (10-7) claimed OUA bronze thanks to a 3-1 victory over Western.

For all the info on the 2010 CIS women's field hockey championship, visit: www.cis-sic.ca.

Note: a complete championship preview will follow on Tuesday.

SEEDING

1. Guelph Gryphons (OUA champions: 13-1-0 regular season / 2-0 playoffs)
2. UBC Thunderbirds (Canada West champions: 9-1-2 regular season / no playoffs in CW)
3. Toronto Varsity Blues (OUA finalists: 13-1-0 regular season / 1-1 playoffs)
4. Victoria Vikes (Canada West second place: 6-4-2 regular season / no playoffs in CW)
5. Waterloo Warriors (OUA bronze medallists: 8-6-0 regular season / 2-1 playoffs)

CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE

Wednesday, Nov. 3
19:00 All-Canadian Awards Banquet (Holiday Inn Guelph Hotel & Convention Centre)

Thursday, Nov. 4
9:30 Round-Robin 1: Guelph vs. UBC
11:50 Round-Robin 2: Toronto vs. Victoria
15:30 Round-Robin 3: UBC vs. Waterloo
17:50 Round-Robin 4: Guelph vs. Victoria

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

Saturday, Nov. 6
10:00 Round-Robin 8: Toronto vs. Waterloo
12:20 Round-Robin 9: UBC vs. Victoria
16:00 Round-Robin 10: Guelph vs. Waterloo
17:30 Tie-Breaking Strokes (if necessary)

Sunday, Nov. 7
10:00 Bronze medal
13:00 Championship final

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