Photo credit Martin Bazyl

TORONTO (CIS) – The host University of Toronto Varsity Blues notched a convincing 4-1 victory over their OUA rival Guelph Gryphons on Day 2 of the 40th CIS-FHC field hockey championship at Back Campus Fields.

It was the 11th time the OUA champion Blues, now 16-0-0 on the season, met Guelph at the national tournament. Toronto holds a 6-4-1 head-to-head advantage over the reigning four-time national bronze medalist Gryphons at the CIS championship.

The Varsity Blues (2-0) currently lead the standings ahead of Victoria (1-0), UBC (0-1) and Guelph (0-2).

“I thought we played really well,” said John DeSouza, who was named the 2014 CIS coach of the year on Wednesday night. “It’s the fourth time we’ve played Guelph this year.  We didn’t deal with the press as well as we should have and we turned the ball over at critical times, but we stayed composed and finished our chances.”

The Gryphons had three penalty corner opportunities in the first eight minutes but Blues goalie Madeleine Cho (Vancouver) came up with some big saves to keep the game scoreless.

The Blues opened the scoring in the 14th minute when rookie Nikki Woodcroft of Waterloo, Ont., deked around a Gryphons defender and passed to veteran Alex Thicke (North Vancouver) in front of the net for the one-time goal.

Toronto extended their lead in the 29th minute when second-year forward Anna McNeil of Sutton, Ont., tipped in a nice pass from 2014 CIS player of the year Amanda Woodcroft (Waterloo) in the 29th minute.

Second-year forward Lauren Sudac of Burlington, Ont., notched her second of the tournament two minutes later to give the host Blues a 3-0 lead at the midway point of the match.

Guelph had numerous penalty corners and got on the board in the 54th minute as rookie midfielder Danica Davies of Port Coquitlam, B.C., tipped in shot at the side of the net.

Toronto held strong with some excellent play from Cho and third-year forward Emma Stairs of Kitchener, Ont., rounded out the scoring with a hard shot off a penalty corner in the 69th minute.

The host Blues (2-0) wrap up the round robin versus the third-seeded Victoria Vikes (1-0) tomorrow (Nov. 1) at 1 p.m., while the Gryphons (0-2) are set to take on the defending champion UBC Thunderbirds (0-1) at 3 p.m. Both games will be streamed live on CIS-SIC.tv.

The top two finishers after tomorrow’s preliminary round will advance to the final and the bottom two teams battling for bronze on Sunday.

SCORING SUMMARY
TOR: 3-1: 4
GUE: 0-1: 1
 
First half
TOR Alex Thicke (2), 14th minute
TOR Anna McNeil (1), 29th minute
TOR Lauren Sudac (2), 31st minute

Second half
GUE Danica Davies (1), 54th minute
TOR Emma Stairs (1), 69th minute
 
Goaltenders
TOR: Madeleine Cho (W, 70:00, 1 GA, 2-0)
GUE: Morgan Kelley (L, 70:00, 4 GA, 0-1)

Players of the game
TOR: Heather Haughn (North Vancouver, B.C.)
GUE: Daniela Jelec (Mississauga, Ont.)

STANDINGS, SCHEDULE & RESULTS

Round-robin standings

      GP W L T GF GA PTS
1. Toronto 2 2 0 0 7 1 6
2. Victoria 1 1 0 0 3 2 3
3. UBC  1 0 1 0 0 3 0
4. Guelph 2 0 2 0 3 7 0

NOTE: 3 points for a win and 1 point for a tie.

Thursday, Oct. 30
16:30 Game 1: Victoria 3, Guelph 2
18:30 Game 2: Toronto 3, UBC 0

Friday, Oct. 31
16:30 Game 3: Toronto 4, Guelph 1
18:30 Game 4: UBC vs. Victoria (CIS-SIC.tv)

Saturday, Nov. 1
13:00 Game 5: Toronto vs Victoria (CIS-SIC.tv)
15:00 Game 6: UBC vs. Guelph (CIS-SIC.tv)

Sunday, Nov. 2
13:00 Bronze medal (CIS-SIC.tv)
15:00 Championship final (CIS-SIC.tv)

About Canadian Interuniversity Sport

Canadian Interuniversity Sport is the national governing body of university sport in Canada. Every year, over 11,500 student-athletes and 700 coaches from 56 universities and four regional associations vie for 21 national championships in 12 different sports. CIS also provides high performance international opportunities for Canadian student-athletes at Winter and Summer Universiades, as well as numerous world university championships. For further information, visit www.cis-sic.ca or follow us on:

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