FH: New season begins Saturday
VANCOUVER - The 2021 Canada West field hockey season gets underway on Saturday, with all three programs in action as the conference is set to use an alternate schedule format this season.
The teams will play a total of eight regular season games during two separate double round-robin events. The first weekend of play in Victoria will feature four matches for each team.
The Victoria Vikes and Calgary Dinos are first to get things going with an 11:00 a.m. PDT start on Friday. The Dinos will play back-to-back games on opening day, with a 4:00 p.m. matchup against the UBC Thunderbirds.
Teams will travel to Vancouver for the second weekend of games, October 22-24.
The Victoria Vikes are coming off of back-to-back conference and national titles in 2018 and 2019. The Vikes posted a 4-0-4 record to claim their 21st conference banner in program history.
The Canada West champion is awarded to the top finisher in the regular season standings. The winner will represent the conference at the best-of-three U SPORTS national championship, hosted by the winner of the OUA.
2021 TEAM PREVIEWS
CALGARY DINOS
2019 CW regular season record: 0-5-3, 3rd in CW
Interim Head coach: Heather Ramsay (1st season) / 0-0-0 (Career CW reg. season record)
Last CW championship / total CW championships: 1974 / 2
Last U SPORTS championship / total U SPORTS championships: None
2019 CW regular season ranks:
- Offence: 11 goals for, Tied 1st in CW
- Defence: 16 goals against, 3rd in CW
- Goals: 1 - Jennifer Wishart, F; Abigail Fung, M
- Wins: None
- Ella Blanke / M / 1 / Calgary, Alta. / Calgary Cougars FHC
- Jaydn Campbell / D / 1 / Calgary, Alta. / St. Mary's HS
- Madison Gaffney / D / 1 / Calgary, Alta. / Field Hockey Alberta
- Maisie Hastings / F / 1 / West Vancouver, B.C. / Collingwood HS
- Jenna Birch-Jones / D/M / North Vancouver, B.C. / 5
- Amanda Brown / D / Calgary, Alta. / 5
- Nicole Brown / M / Calgary, Alta. / 5
- Madison MacMillan
- Defender
- 3rd-year
- West Vancouver, B.C.
UBC THUNDERBIRDS
2019 CW regular season record: 2-1-5, 2nd in CW
Head coach: Poonam Sandhu (4th season) / 6-2-8 (Career CW reg. season record)
Last CW championship / total CW championships: 2017 / 25
Last U SPORTS championship / total U SPORTS championships: 2017 / 19
2019 CW regular season ranks:
- Offence: 11 goals for, 1st in CW
- Defence: 10 goals against, 2nd in CW
- Goals: 3 - Sara Goodman, Defender
- Wins: 2 - Hannah Rumble
- Lize Huibregtsen / D / 1 / Haarlem, Netherlands
- Liz Mathisen / M/F / 1 / West Vancouver, B.C. / Collingwood Secondary
- Mikayla Stelling / M/F / 1 / Vancouver, B.C. / Canadian Junior Women's National Team
- Kaia Cooper / M / 1 / North Vancouver, B.C. / West Vancouver Field Hockey Club
- Ishavel Sekhon / GK / 1 / Surrey, B.C. / U17 National Team
- Hannah Eborall / D / Beamsville, Ont. / 5
- Margaret Pham / F / Mississauga, Ont. / 5
- Sara Goodman
- Defender
- 4th
- Duncan, B.C.
VICTORIA VIKES
2019 CW regular season record: 4-0-4, 1st
Head coach: Lynne Beecroft (36th Season) / 238-60-73 (Career CW reg. season record)
Last CW championship / total CW championships: 2019 / 21
Last U SPORTS championship / total U SPORTS championships: 2019 / 13
2019 CW regular season ranks:
- Offence: 11 goals for, T-1 in CW
- Defence: 5 goals against, 1st in CW
- Goals: 2 - Erin Dawson, Forward & Janet Dawson, Forward
- Wins: 4 - Robin Fleming, Goalkeeper
- Libby Hogg / Defence / First / Victoria, BC / Island Wildcats
- Alison Drummond / Defence / First / North Vancouver, BC / Field Hockey Canada NextGEN U18
- Leina Dueck / Forward / North Vancouver, BC / 4
- Zow Brown / Forward / Kelowna, BC / 3
- Anna Mollenhauer
- Defender
- Fourth
- Victoria, BC
A two-time All-Canadian and Top 8 Academic All-Canadian, Mollenhauer was a key part of helping the Vikes to back-to-back Canada West and U SPORTS championships in 2019. Named the 2019 U SPORTS national championship MVP, Mollenhauer had a two-goal day against Guelph to lead Victoria to the gold on its home turf at UVic.

