Canada: University Championship Day Two Recap

UVIC and York Continue Strong Starts to Championships

Day 2 of the U SPORTS Invitational Championship got underway Friday afternoon with another two games on deck as the tournament began to take its stride. 

UPEI vs UVIC 

Our first game on day 2 saw the Atlantic Champion UPEI Panthers take on the best from Canada West the UVIC Vikes. Right from the start the UVIC squad wanted to press and press often as for the most part of the first half there was no way out for the UPEI defense. Led by goalkeeper Julie Hall though the Panthers stood strong as short corner after short corner was awarded to the Vikes and time and time again the Panthers would repeal the attack. It wasn’t until very late in the first half that the Vikes would capitalize on a chance. As they lined up for  their 6th  short corner of the half they finally  would find success after the ball was worked around the top of the circle and found its way on the stick of Anni Kleinschmidt who fired the ball from the left side into the back of the net giving the Vikes a 1-0 lead at half.

UPEI and UVIC battle in day 2 of U SPORTS Championships. Photos/Yan Huckendubler

Building on the vital goal they got at the end of the first it didn’t take long for the Vikes to double their advantage as a scramble out front found its way on the stick of Sadie Lee who would score her second goal in as many days improving the lead to 2-0. From there it wouldn’t be too long until the score became 3-0 as another brilliantly worked short corner routine was finished off by Jaden Dawson who would bring the score to 3-0. 

Julie Hall made a total of 16 saves over the course of the match. However, the Panthers offense struggled, meaning as the Vikes added another 2 in the fourth and final quarter the final score would read Vikes 5 Panthers 0. The Vikes improve to 2-0 on the tournament with the Panthers looking to turn their 0-2 start to the championships around tomorrow.  

Vikes Head Coach Krista Thompson commented after the game saying: “I am happy with our defensive effort so far and we will continue to work on this moving forward in the tournament.” 

York vs Waterloo

The second matchup of the day featured an all OUA battle between the host York Lions and OUA champion Waterloo Warriors. With both teams being very familiar with each other from their previous matchups earlier in the season it was going to be an interesting matchup to see who would come out on top. 

It didn’t take long once the game began for the hometown Lions to take the lead as late in the first quarter second year midfielder Avery Davis found herself behind the defense from about 25 yards out. As she came down on the Waterloo keeper, she fired the ball into the bottom left corner to give the Lions an early lead. From then on, both sides were able to manufacture half chances but neither side was able to really carve out an opportunity to add to the scoreboard with the teams going into half at 1-0. 

In the second half York once again would be the beneficiary of an early goal as a scramble in front was pounced upon by Elyse Ives who would add to the lead to make it 2-0. 

York and Waterloo face off in the second game of day 2. Photos/Yan Huckendubler

From then on, the Warriors did their best to try and mount a late comeback but with a very difficult deficit being faced, their late game push was not enough as goalkeeper Jade Lew would pick up her second shutout of the championship with the Lions coming out on top 2-0. 

With day 2 wrapped up we look now at day 3 on Saturday when the two undefeated teams in the tournament will match up against each other in the early game as the UVIC Vikes take on the York Lions with the UPEI Panthers taking on the Waterloo Warriors at 3pm.  

HOW TO FOLLOW THE TOURNAMENT

Click on our tournament event page to follow results and see game scores as well as tournament photo galleries. Live stream the matches on the Field Hockey Canada Youtube Channel as well as the CBC Youtube Channel. Links will be made live on Thursday.

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