Vancouver, BC - Saturday afternoon, the UBC women's field hockey team hosted the University of Victoria for the first of two games this weekend on Wright Field. After over an hour of fast-paced, grueling play, the 'Birds and the Vikes found themselves tied 1-1, marking their second tie-game this season.
In the first half, the game moved rapidly, with each team displaying a fierce intensity at both ends of the field. Victoria found itself controlling the ball offensively for most of the first half, while UBC would do the same in the second.
The Vikes' lone goal of the game came in the ninth minute by first-year, Stefanie Hatch; Victoria brought the ball in on a corner possession and Hatch sent a quick shot through the legs of several defenders. Victoria went into the half with a 1-0 lead over UBC.
In the second half, UBC got on the scoreboard with a corner penalty play. Captain
Miranda Mann's initial shot was blocked; however,
Natalie Sourisseau regained possession and sent the ball soaring into the corner of the goal.
Coach Hash Kanjee recognizes that the team maintains room for improvement.
"We started the game really poorly and I thought we put ourselves into a lot of difficult positions because of our poor decision-making and because of our skills. Towards the end of the first half, I thought we started to play a little bit better. I thought
Caitlin Evans, in the middle of the park, played exceptionally well.
Natalie Sourisseau played reasonably well and got us the goal to tie the game-up. I just saw that a lot of people really didn't play as well as they could have. Cassie Taylor at forward line gave us some serious attack, but we didn't take our chances. We had about five good scoring chances, which we didn't capitalize on. So what we have to work on is that we somehow need to remember that we have to come ready to play against [the University of Victoria] because they are very aggressive and well structured and they didn't give us a lot of time or a lot of space."
Five Thunderbirds were absent from the game, as they were competing for the Canadian National Team in the International Super Series Hockey 9s in Perth, Australia.
Kate Gillis,
Hannah Haughn, Abi Raye,
Sara McManus, and
Rachel Donohoe will rejoin the team for the October 26 game in Victoria.
Currently, the Thunderbirds and the Vikes each maintain a conference record of 4-0-2, leaving them tied for the No. 1 spot. Over the next week, the two games between the Vikes and the Thunderbirds will determine the seeding for CIS Championship tournament October 31-November 3 in Victoria.
The 'Birds and the Vikes will face-off again tomorrow at 1:00 pm on Wright Field. Kanjee feels that the team knows what it needs to fix for tomorrow's game.
"We need to do better with moving the ball around and that is what we have to work toward. For me, personally, these kids are all learning the game. As long as they are learning something each time out, but I thought today, as a group, they took a step backwards. We will talk about that and come back with a better performance tomorrow. It's one game at a time for us."
