It was moving day on the second day of competition at the Under-18 Women’s National Championships in Surrey, British Columbia.
With only two round robin games remaining on Friday morning, Thursday was the day that teams had the chance and putting a stronghold on placing in the pool standings. With the tournament format such that the first place team goes directly to the final and the second and third place teams playing in a semifinal for the remaining spot in the final, the stakes were high.
The first game of the day was a battle between two teams which had the best opportunity to finish first in the pool, as both BC Blue and Ontario began with convincing wins on Wednesday. The beginning of the game was a feeling out process for both teams, with neither wanting to slip up early and play from behind. BC was the first to break through with two quick goals from Hanaa Punja and Nicky Bajus in the 17th and 19th minutes to go ahead. They never looked back. Another first half goal and three in the second led them to a 6-1 win.
In the day’s second match, BC White faced PEI, which was winless on day one. BC won once and lost once on Wednesday and was intent on getting a win early on day two to give itself the best chance at finishing in the top three. The goalscoring began early with Emma Dame notching her third of the tournament. She would add another in the 51st minute. It was her second two-goal game on the tournament. BC kept the pressure on after the early goal, scoring three more in the first half en route to an 11-0 win.
The afternoon matches began with a meeting between BC Blue and Alberta. BC Blue was undefeated through two games and Alberta had one win and one loss. The Albertans got behind the eight ball early, as BC Blue kept its momentum rolling with a goal from Nicky Bajus in the first minute and Megan Ma in the third. BC had four multi-goal scorer including Bajus and Ma, along with Alexis de Armond and Brianna Ricker as they went on to a convincing 9-1 win. Alberta’s lone goal came from Robyn Scholz.
There was many eyes on the final match of the day as Ontario and BC White did battle. It was the closest match of the tournament thus far and likely a preview of the 2nd vs 3rd semifinal on Friday. The two teams were evenly matched but it was Ontario that came out on top thanks to a two-goal effort from Katherine Macmillan. The second of MacMillan’s goals broke a 1-1 tie in the 28th minute. Ontario added another before half for the 3-1 lead. But BC didn’t go down without a fight. Leina Dueck scored in the 38th minute to make it 3-2 before Margaret Pham sealed the victory for Ontario with a goal in the 49th minute.
With the win, Ontario sits in second place with 6 points (tied with BC White but with the tiebreaker in its favour) behind BC Blue which has 9 points. Alberta is in 4th with 3 points and PEI is winless in fifth spot.
Friday’s morning matches will solidify the semifinal matchups. The schedule is as follows:
- 9:00am – Alberta vs Ontario
- 10:45am – PEI vs BC Blue
- 3:00pm – Semifinal 1 (2nd vs 3rd)*
- 4:45pm – Semifinal (4th vs 5th)*
*Denotes a featured match, which will be live tweeted on @FieldHockeyCan
