The Canadian Women’s National Team dominantly defeated Guatemala 34-0 in the first match of the Women’s World League 1 tournament in Guadalajara, Mexico on Thursday.
From the moment the game began, the world no. 22 Canadians met all expectations against the unranked Guatemalans.
The first goal of the game came in the second minute of play from Brienne Stairs (Kitchener, ON). Stairs led the Canadians throughout the match, with six goals on the day.
The Canadians had multiple multi-goal performer, including Abigail Raye (Kelowna, BC), who had five, Thea Culley (Rossland, BC) and Kate Gillis (Kingston, ON), who had four each, and Hannah Haughn (North Vancouver, BC), who had three.
Madeline Secco (Victoria, BC), Tegan Stairs (Kitchener, ON), and Poonam Sandhu (Vancouver, BC) also put up multiple goals, with two each.
The game was an opportunity for the women to get their feet wet in a very important tournament.
World League 1 serves as a pathway to eventual Olympic qualification, with the only tournament winner headed to World League 2, which will take place in 2015 and is the only way to World League 3, which will determine Olympic qualifiers for 2016.
After leading 18-0 at the half, goalkeeper Kaitlyn Williams (White Rock, BC) gave way to Lauren Logush (Richmond Hill, ON) who completed the tandem shutout.
For the full game sheet click here. Full the complete tournament schedule and results, click here.
Canada next faces world no. 28 Mexico on Saturday at 7:30am PST/10:30am EST.
