VICTORIA (CIS) – In the opening game of the 2009 CIS women's field hockey championship, the No. 2 UBC Thunderbirds dealt the top-seeded Guelph Gyrphons their first loss of the season with a 3-1 victory at the UVic Field Hockey Turf.
In a matchup of the OUA and Canada West conference champions, the 11-time CIS champion T-Birds prevailed after receiving goals from
Robyn Pendleton (30th minute), Poonam Sandu (32nd) and
Elise Milosevich (70th), while rookie 'keeper
Dina Bulfone was brilliant in goal.
Angela Lancaster (38th) responded for Guelph.
“It's the first game so there's first game jitters for both teams. They handled the jitters a little bit better than we did but fortunately our finishing was a bit better today,” said UBC head coach Hash Kanjee, whose team went 10-2 in Canada West play on its way to a seventh straight conference banner.
UBC struck twice near the end of the opening half, scoring just two minutes apart in the 30th and 32nd minutes.
Pendelton, an all-Canadian from Victoria, opened the scoring after hammering a low-flying strike past the Guelph 'keeper Dorothy Marcy.
Just moments later Sandu scored what proved to be the game-winner on a great individual effort, as the Vancuver native cut through the defence down the right side and buried the ball between the posts.
The T-Birds added an insurance marker in the late stages of the match with all-Canadian and Canada West leading scorer
Elise Milosevich netting her 12th goal of the season. The sophomore from Duncan, B.C., helped convert a penalty corner attempt in the 70th minute, just seconds before the final buzzer sounded.
Lancaster, an all-Canadian from Burlington, Ont., potted the lone Guelph goal at the start of the second half. The fifth-year senior tapped in a loose ball in front of the net in the 38th minute of play.
Gryphon forward Brienne Stairs of Kitchener, Ont., the CIS player of the year who led the nation with 30 goals in 14 regular season outings, was held off the scoresheet thanks in large part to an outstanding performance by Bulfone.
Buflone, a rookie from Delta, B.C., was named UBC player of the game after holding the Guelph's potent offence to just a lone score. The Gryphons tallied a team-record 68 goals during the regular schedule.
The loss is the first of the 2009 season for Guelph, who entered the tournament as the No. 1 seed and as the only undefeated team in the country, with a 14-0-2 overall record. The Gryphons (0-1) have never won the McCrae Cup and face a quick turnaround before facing archrivals, the Toronto Varsity Blues (0-0), in the later Thursday match at 5:50 p.m. Pacific Time.
UBC (1-0) will play their second game of the opening day at 3:30 p.m., when they face the No. 5 Alberta Pandas (0-0). The Pandas were CIS finalists as the No. 5 seed a year ago and enter this year's tournament as the third-place finishers in the Canada West.
GAME NOTES: UBC beat Guelph in both head-to-head meetings at last year's CIS tournament, 2-1 in round-robin play and 3-0 in the bronze-medal match… The T-Birds' current two-year gold-medal drought is the team's longest since they went seven seasons without a McCrae Cup title from 1991 to 1997.
SCORING SUMMARY
UBC 2-1: 3
GUE: 0-1: 1
First half
30th, UBC, Robyn Pendelton (1)
32nd, UBC,
Poonam Sandhu (1)
Second half
38th, GUE, Angela Lancaster (1)
70th, UBC,
Elise Milosevich (1)
Goaltenders
UBC:
Dina Bulfone (W, 70:00, 1 GA, 1-0)
GUE: Dorothy Marcy (L, 70:00, 3 GA, 0-1)
Players of the game
UBC:
Dina Bulfone (Delta, B.C.)
GUE: Angela Lancaster (Burlington, Ont.)
