CALGARY – Just under 12 months after winning the national title on the same field, the UBC Thunderbirds clinched their 10th Canada West field hockey championship Sunday afternoon with a 4-0 win over the Calgary Dinos.
As they had done in Saturday's series opener, a 7-0 win, the Thunderbirds pounced on the Dinos early with two goals in the first 10 minutes and carried the majority of the play on the afternoon to improve to 6-0 on the season. That opens an insurmountable eight-point lead in the standings over second-place Victoria (3-2-1), with those two teams set to close out the season next weekend in Vancouver in what will now be a series about preparation for the national tournament in Toronto.
The young Calgary side finishes the season with an 0-7-1 record.
Katherine Gillis opened the scoring for UBC on a field goal in the fifth minute, followed by another tally just four minutes later by Cassie Tayler off a penalty corner. From there, the teams settled into the game with play becoming more evenly distributed, while still favouring UBC. In contrast to their loss Saturday, the Dinos seemed a more motivated and energetic team and had several promising opportunities, only to have them snuffed out by a stifling UBC defence.
After taking their 2-0 lead into the half,
Hannah Haughn scored her third goal of the weekend to extend UBC's lead to 3-0, and
Abigail Raye finished the scoring with a marker in the 67th minute.
Bea Francisco was once again solid in goal for UBC, as was Calgary netminder Sydney Hamm.
UBC will finish off the 2012 Canada West regular season with two home games against provincial rivals Victoria next weekend at Wright Field.
SCORING SUMMARY
UBC – Katherine Gillis, FB (5')
UBC – Cassie Tayler, PC (9')
UBC – Hanna Haughn, FG (39')
UBC –
Abigail Raye, FG (67')
GOALKEEPERS
UBC –
Bea Francisco (70 MP, 0 GA)
CGY – Sydney Hamm (70 MP, 4 GA)
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