VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds and the Victoria Vikes played to an entertaining 1-1 draw in Canada West women's field hockey action on Sunday at Wright Field in Vancouver.
 
UBC is now 2-3-1 while Victoria is 5-0-1.
 
Sophie Jones (West Vancouver, B.C.) got the home side on the scoreboard early, finding the net in the seventh minute. Amanda Kurianowicz replied for the Vikes in the 58th.
 
"I think today was another positive step forward for us, especially in the first half.  I thought we were pressing quite effectively and we generated a lot of turnovers as a result," said UBC head coach Robin D'Abreo. "A key focus for us this game was to make more of the few attacking chances we were getting, and I thought we did that quite effectively in the first half. I think we had a bit of a setback in the second, where they definitely had momentum going in their favour and we were on our heels a bit.  We'll need to work on that moving forward, but overall, I'm quite happy with the game."
 
Jones' goal was the first surrendered by Victoria in Canada West league play this year. Off a penalty corner, Jones fired a sweep to the bottom right corner for her first goal of the season, which put UBC up 1-0.
 
That was the scoreline at halftime but the Vikes had good opportunities throughout the first 35 minutes but were turned aside every time by Thunderbirds goalkeeper Rowan Harris (Ottawa).
 
Just two minutes after the opening whistle, Victoria's Lizzie Yates was in 1-on-1 against Harris, who lunged right to make a great stick save.
 
In the 22nd minute, Kurianowicz drove into the scoring circle and lifted a shot on net, but was Harris made the stop with her glove.
 
The Vikes had more quality chances in the second as Harris was forced to make a nice kick save on a shot by Annie Walters-Shumka in the 51st.
 
The visitors finally broke through in the 58th minute, as Kurianowicz fired a shot from the top of the circle past Harris and inside the left post.
 
UBC had a chance with just over three and a half minutes before the final whistle. Off a penalty corner, Sophie Jones hit a low, hard shot towards teammate Sarah Keglowitsch (Shawnigan Lake, B.C.) for a tip, but she couldn't get her stick on the ball and it just went wide left of the goal.
 
The Thunderbirds will try to clinch second place in the Canada West standings and a berth to the CIS Women's Field Hockey Championship when they host the 0-4 Calgary Dinos next weekend in Vancouver. The Vikes will enjoy a bye before closing out the conference slate with two games against Calgary, Oct. 24-25 on the UVic campus.

- with files from Steph Mihalatos