Canada: 2025 University Championship – Saturday Recap

With wins on Saturday, UVic and York set up a gold medal rematch

The rain had subsided but the wind had not, as gusts as high as 50 km/h were whipping through the fields at UPEI campus. Saturday marked the last day of group stage hockey before Sunday’s medal rounds. With two games in the bag each, nothing was secured and both games today had significant implications.

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The first match of the day featured coast against coast. The Vancouver Island UVic Vikes vs the University of Prince Edward Island Panthers.

After UVic earned consecutive penalty corners, they were finally able to break through, securing the first goal of the game near the end of the first quarter. Molly Harris injected the PC pass and darted straight to the post where she finished off a Julia Boraston shot to get the Vikes on the board. Only a few minutes later, at the start of the second quarter, UVic showed their PC prowess once again as this time it was U SPORTS player of the year, Libby Hogg with a straight bullet from the top of the circle. Hogg showed off why she was the MVP this season as she was instrumental in all four of UVic’s penalty corner goals this afternoon.

UPEI hunkered down for the majority of the game, protecting against the speed and skill of UVic. The unit that we’ve seen all weekend long show attacking potential includes all-Canadian Kayla Batchilder, the Lawlor siters and Katie Grace Noye. Today the Vikes were just too much as the hosts couldn’t generate enough offense to get themselves a foothold in this game. GK Bria Matthews, who stood tall in yesterday’s match against York, played another beautiful game in net, but ultimately the Islanders from the west took this match and secured themselves a spot in the gold medal match tomorrow afternoon.

UVic’s goalkeeper, Anais Chace, said that the team brought ‘Vikes hockey’ to the pitch this afternoon. “We connected as a team, we were stick-to-stick and relied on our skill and relied on each other. The key to our success is we connect on and off the field. We support each other, we are there for each other and we play well together.”

UPEI and UVIC play their final group stage match on Saturday. Photos/Yan Huckendubler.

Coming into this afternoon’s match with Dal, the York U Lions hadn’t found the back of the net. For a team that filled the net during the regular season, they knew a key to their success would be cashing in on the first goal of the game. Sure enough, after some nice pressure and a penalty corner, Sabine Keon deflected a Katie Tye shot to get York on the board in the first quarter. It was wheels-up from then on out as the Lions continued to hem the Dalhousie Tigers in their own end for the majority of the game.

Dalhousie’s all-Canadian duo of Sanne Meijer vanLoendersloot and Molly Doyle and second-year midfielder Abby Henn continued to impress as they have all weekend long. But their quick-skills and attacking runs never found much momentum during today’s match. It was all York, all day.

Wave after wave of York attack led by Avery Davis, Juliet Redelaar, Elise Piper, Gates McAllister and Kathryn Carlow descended on the Dal defenders. Redelaar added a second and third quarter marker and Jewel Lew smashed in a goal as well. Tye got her name on the scoresheet, scoring a penalty stroke in the final minutes of the game. York’s goalkeeper, Ella Ciesielski kept her net empty and has yet to allow a goal during the tournament.

The action today sets up the medal rounds for Championship Sunday. UPEI and Dalhousie will play-off for bronze, a rematch of the Atlantic University Field Hockey championship game. On Thursday, the teams played to a dramatic 1-1 draw.  UVic tops the pool and will face York University in the championship match, a rematch of last year’s gold medal game. Their Thursday match was also a draw, setting up a compelling Sunday in Charlottetown. Watch the medal matches from the Field Hockey Canada University Championships on the CBC Sports YouTube Channel.

York defeats Dal to close out the group stage. Photos/Yan Huckendubler.