TORONTO (CIS) – The host University of Toronto Varsity Blues kept their perfect season alive with a narrow 1-0 victory over the Victoria Vikes on Day 3 of the 40th CIS-FHC field hockey championship at Back Campus Fields.

The Blues, who had already booked a spot in their 18th national final in program history, are 17-0-0 heading into tomorrow’s gold medal match at 3 p.m.

They, along with Victoria, await the results of the last preliminary game between the UBC Thunderbirds and Guelph Gryphons. It will come down to goal differential should UBC win. If the T-Birds win by four goals, it would put them ahead of the Vikes in the standings for the remaining spot in the championship final.

Toronto and Victoria appeared in the first-ever national championship final, with the Blues claiming the title with a 1-0 victory.

Second-year Blues forward Nicole Spring of Oakville, Ont., scored the lone goal of the game in the 40th minute off a rebound in front of the Vikes net.

“We tried to implement a new system up front and I think we will be better at it tomorrow,” said Varsity Blues head coach John DeSouza. “The girls gutted it out. We possessed the ball and created more scoring chances than them. It’s always tough in a situation like this. As a coach you come in and tell them we want to play as best as we can but they’re already looking forward to tomorrow.”

The Vikes looked as if they had evened the score in the final minutes of the match, but the ball went off the foot of a Victoria player and was called back.

“I think that was one of our better team games,” said Vikes head coach Lynne Beecroft, in her 31st season as bench boss. “I think there was really good communication and helping each other. If we do things collectively, great things can happen and I think we did things collectively today. We were unfortunate not to get the goal to tie it but it was a credit to us with the quick turnaround from playing last night. It was a pretty good game.”

SCORING SUMMARY
TOR: 0-1: 1
VIC: 0-0: 0
 
First half
No scoring

Second half
TOR Nicole Spring (1), 40th minute
 
Goaltenders
TOR: Madeleine Cho (W, 70:00, 0 GA, 3-0-0)
VIC: Sheriden Goodmanson  (L, 70:00, 1 GA, 1-1-1)

Players of the game
TOR: Emma Wingrave (Oakville, Ont.)
VIC: Rosie Beale (Victoria, B.C.)

STANDINGS, SCHEDULE & RESULTS

Round-robin standings

  GP W L T GF GA PTS
1. Toronto 3 3 0 0 8 1 9
2. Victoria 3 1 1 1 4 4 4
3. UBC  2 0 1 1 1 4 1
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: Victoria 1, UBC 1

Saturday, Nov. 1
13:00 Game 5: Toronto 1, Victoria 0
15:00 Game 6: UBC vs. Guelph (CIS-SIC.tv)

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

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/CIS_SIC  
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cissports
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/universitysport
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/CIS_SIC

-CIS-