The Varsity Blues women’s field hockey team maintained its unbeaten record with wins over the Western Mustangs and the McGill Martlets Saturday.
Both opponents were shut out, as the Blues recorded a 2–0 victory over the Mustangs and a 6–0 win against the Martlets. The wins left the Blues with a 5–0 start to their season.
The first game, against Western, ended with a close 2–0 win for the Blues, whose strong and aggressive defence secured the shut-out. The first goal came in the 21st minute of the game from second-year forward Alex Thicke, who put the Blues ahead before half time. Fourth-year defender Kelley Lusk doubled the Blues’ lead with an insurance goal in the 62nd minute off a corner.
The Blues showed huge defensive strength against the Mustangs. Each time Western took a corner, the Blues walled up. Their aggressive play allowed them to steal and intercept the ball consistently, giving the Mustangs very few chances to shoot. What few shots the Mustangs did manage were blocked easily by U of T’s goalie, Kathryn Williams.
Though defensively sound — the Blues have conceded just one goal so far, a CIS-best — women’s field hockey head coach, John DeSouza, admitted “the goal scoring was awful.” He strongly believes that the Blues should be outscoring their opponents by even greater margins. The Blues do, however, lead CIS in goals scored, with 28.
Against McMaster, the Blues attack came on strong, outscoring their opponents 6–0. Alexandra Evanyshyn, a second-year forward, led the team to victory with three goals. “It obviously feels really good to help our team win,” said Evanyshyn. “I think we really needed to win this afternoon because we didn’t have our best game this morning,” she mused. “It was nice [for me] to put some [goals] on the board in the second game.”
Defender Kaelan Watson scored to put the Blues ahead in the third minute of the game. Evanyshyn followed Watson’s lead, scoring in the 17th minute and then again in the 27th minute.
The second half of the Martlets game began with a goal from Katherine McNeill in the 41st minute. Lauren Mansfield added the fifth five minutes later, and Evanyshyn completed her hat-trick in the 56th minute.
The Blues’ defense and aggressive play remained strong, with the ball rarely making it to the shooting circle around their net.
The Blues’ women have added some new players this season to the stellar squad that won the CIS championship last season. The two Canadian first-year students on the squad, Rachel Fackoury and Amanda Woodcroft, have played field hockey on the Ontario provincial team, so their success does not come as a huge shock. Colleen Garrity, a first-year from Hanover, New Hampshire, was MVP for her high school team last year and a member of the all-state team.
Hannah Tighe, a veteran player for the team, was the Blues’ female athlete of the week for her performances on the September 17 weekend. She scored four goals and had two assists in the team’s opening series. Along with teammate Watson, Tighe has been a CIS all-Canadians since 2009.
“It’s great to be recognized amongst such great athletes in our community, and it’s good going into the home weekend like that … it’s encourag[ing],” Tighe said of her latest award.
Last season, the Blues fell to the Guelph Gryphons in the OUA finals but beat them in the CIS championship. The two teams have been rivals for some time, and on Sunday they met again.
“[We’ll stick] with the same game plan. You know, staying in the process and not getting ahead of ourselves,” said Tighe. “We know Guelph’s always been such a big rival and we know we just need to keep going with what we’ve been practicing all along.”
The strategy clearly works — the Blues beat Guelph 3–0 to remain unbeaten atop the OUA standings.
