Women’s National Team Kick off 2026 in South Africa

24-Athlete Squad prepares for the World Cup Qualifier

Field Hockey Canada’s Women’s National Team is set to kick off the new year with a vital warm weather tour to South Africa from January 5 to 23, 2026. For the 24-athlete squad, this is an opportunity to prepare ahead of the 2026 World Cup Qualifier which takes place in Santiago, Chile from 1- 8th March 2026.

SOUTH AFRICA TOUR EVENT PAGE

The tour will feature training elements and a mix of friendly matches and officially capped contests against South Africa’s national team. South Africa, ranked one place ahead of Canada, has already secured its berth for the 2026 World Cup, having won their continental qualifier. For Canada, this trip serves as an important preparation, giving time together to allow the team to refine technical and tactical elements identified during the 2025 Pan American Cup. It also provides a competitive environment to evaluate athletes and finalize selections for the World Cup Qualifier.

Canada competes at the 2025 Pan American Cup in Uruguay. Photos/World Sport Pics

Canada’s roster blends experience with emerging talent. The group is a make-up of a returning core from the 2025 Pan American Cup and rising stars fresh off the Junior Pan Am Games and Junior World Cup. The core senior athletes include seasoned internationalists such as Anna Mollenhauer and Elise Wong among others. They will be joined by the growing talent who have emerged  from the build within the talent pathway. This has been a huge focus in the last four years, building competitive depth from groups across the country. These athletes have been training hard in the NextGen, Junior and Indoor national team environments. Kenzie Girgis, Nicole Poulakis, Libby Hogg and Katie Gibb represent a large injection of junior graduates that are delivering on the senior stage. Rebecca Carvalho and Paramdeep Gill are two players who have come over from the Indoor National Team and bring experience from international indoor competitions over the past several seasons. For these young and emerging athletes, gaining senior-level exposure will be critical to their next step in international hockey.

For the World Cup Qualifier, Canada finds themselves in a pool with Japan, Ireland and Malaysia. The top two teams from the tournament will earn automatic spots, along with the bronze medal winner. The WNT is looking to build on the 2022 World Cup appearance which was a return to the tournament for the first time in 28 years. There are four players (Mollenhauer, Rowan Harris, Jordyn Faiczak and Marcia LaPlante) from the 2022 World Cup squad returning, and their leadership will be vital. With this month’s South Africa tour, Team Canada is positioning well to hit the ground running in March and sets the team up with the opportunity to return to the World Cup for the second consecutive cycle.

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