Written by Nathan Lowther, UVic Sports Information Assistant

VICTORIA (CIS)- The tournament host University of Victoria Vikes upset the top-seeded, defending champion Toronto Varsity Blues, 2-1, Thursday night in the fourth and final opening day duel at the CIS women’s field hockey championship.

Championship web site: www.cisport.ca/e/championships/w_fieldhockey/2008 

The No. 4 Vikes (2-0), who beat the No. 3 Guelph Gryphons 3-1 earlier Thursday, end the first of three days of round-robin play with six points in the standings, while the Blues, who defeated the No. 2 UBC Thunderbirds 1-0 in the championship opener, finish day one with a 1-1 mark and three points.

UBC also stand at 1-1, while Guelph and the No. 5 Alberta Pandas show 0-1 records.

Friday’s schedule will see UBC and Guelph face off at 10 a.m. Pacific, Victoria and Alberta battle at 12:20 p.m., and Toronto and Guelph square off at 4 p.m.

Former CIS player of the year and four-time first-team all-Canadian Ali Lee put the Vikes on her back and carried them to the win over Toronto

In just the third minute of play, the fifth-year midfielder from Victoria stole the ball from this year’s CIS MVP, Cailie O’Hara of Mississauga, Ont., and scored an international-level goal. Lee raced to the net and put a backhand into the top corner to give her squad an early 1-0 lead.

Lee was the CIS tournament MVP in 2007 but she has yet to win a McCrae Cup.

“I don’t care about any other awards other than this gold medal. I’ve put my heart and soul into this program for the past four and a half years and I’m not going home without it,” said Lee.

Lee also set up the Vikes’ second goal, which came 18 minutes into the second half. Off a short corner, she handed the ball off to second-team all-Canadian Perri Espeseth of Duncan, B.C., who quickly got the ball back to Lee. Lee drew a defender and slipped the ball back inside to Espeseth, who wound up and smacked a low shot into the back of the net.

Toronto went on the attack late in the game. The U of T pressure earned five short corners in the final ten minutes, but fearless Vike defenders kept the Blues from getting any shots on goalie Kaitlyn Williams of White Rock, B.C.

The most dangerous attack, a back and forth pass followed by a high shot that looked like it would clear the sprawling Williams, was batted out of harm’s way by Lee.

Toronto did solve the Vikes defence with six minute remaining, at the 64-minute mark. Starting on her side of centre, O’Hara went through three UVic players before dishing to a wide open Kyesia O’Neale (Mississauga) who broke Williams’ shutout bid.

But it was too little, too late for the defending champions as UVic weathered the final minutes of pressure to hold on for the win.

SCORING SUMMARY
TOR 0-1: 1
UVIC 1-1: 2

First half
3rd, UVIC, Ali Lee

Second half
53rd, UVIC, Perri Espeseth
64, TOR, Kyesia O’Neale

Goaltenders
TOR: Alice Zhao (L, 70:00, 2 GA, 1-1)
UVIC: Kaitlyn Williams (W, 70:00, 1 GA, 2-0)

Players of the game
TOR: Heather Mulligan (Burlington, Ont.)
UVIC: Katie Collison (Duncan, B.C.)