VICTORIA (CIS) – Tegan Stairs, a fifth-year forward from the University of Toronto, was named the CIS player of the year in women's field hockey, Wednesday night. Stairs, along with fellow fifth-year U of T veteran Amanda Woodcroft were also named CIS all-Canadians. 
 
A native of Kitchener, Ont., Stairs became the sixth U of T winner of the Liz Hoffman Award, and the second in as many campaigns. She follows in the footsteps of last year's laureate Amanda Woodcroft, as well as Cailie O'Hara (2007, 2008), Philippa Kedgley (2003) and Deb Cuthbert (1998).
 
Stairs' older sister, Brienne, won back-to-back Hoffman Awards as a member of the Guelph Gryphons in 2009 and 2010.
 
The 2015 CIS - Field Hockey Canada championship gets underway Thursday at the University of Victoria and culminates Sunday at 3 p.m. Pacific Time with the gold-medal final. All eight matches from the four-team tournament will be webcast live on CIS-SIC.tv.
 
Championship website: http://english.cis-sic.ca/championships/fh/index
 
Stairs will wrap up one of the most decorated careers in CIS field hockey history at this week's championship. The fifth-year criminology student, who played two campaigns with the Guelph Gryphons before joining the Varsity Blues, picked up OUA rookie-of-the-year honours in her university debut, has been named an OUA all-star every season and is now a four-time all-Canadian.
 
In 10 regular season games this fall, Stairs led the Blues with 13 goals, good for third place in the conference, while helping Toronto compile a stellar 11-1 record. She has established herself as the leader of a U of T squad that repeated as OUA champion and now hopes to capture the program's first McCrae Cup since 2010. 
 
"Tegan is the player every coach dreams of having," said Varsity Blues head coach John DeSouza. "She is fast, creative and unselfish. Her speed helps our team transition into offence very quickly. Her creativity and unselfish play helped this Blues team become a goal scoring threat every time we get the ball. She is just a joy to watch when she gets the ball."
 
Woodcroft earns her fourth CIS all-Canadian award in 2015. After earning OUA and CIS MVP honours in 2014, Woodcroft helped the Canadian national team to a bronze-medal finish at the 2015 Pan Am Games in Toronto. This season, she tied for second on the team and ranked fifth in the country, scoring 11 goals in 12 games played. The Waterloo, Ont., native helped Toronto overcome a 3-0 deficit in the OUA final, scoring the game-tying and game-winning goals en route to U of T's second straight OUA banner. 

2015 CIS WOMEN'S FIELD HOCKEY AWARDS & ALL-CANADIANS
 
Liz Hoffman Award (player of the year): Tegan Stairs, Toronto
Joyce Slipp Award (rookie of the year): Sabrina Wong, Calgary
Gail Wilson Award (outstanding contributor): Kathleen Leahy, Victoria
Marina van der Merwe Award (coach of the year): Lynne Beecroft, Victoria
Official of the year: Denise Pelletier, OUA
 

All-Canadian Team

 

Pos.     Athlete                                    University       Year    Hometown                  Academic Program   

 
GK       Beckett Frisch              Calgary            5         Calgary, Alta.                Graduate Studies
D         Jessica Britton              Calgary            4          Rossland, B.C.             Medicine
M         Kathleen Leahy             Victoria            4          Victoria, B.C.               Education
M         Stephanie Snyder          Waterloo          5          Waterloo, Ont.             Economics
M         Erin Houle                     Guelph             5          Burlington, Ont.           Landscape Architecture
M         Kylie Nabata                  McGill             4          North Vancouver, B.C. Biochemistry
M/F      Hannah Haughn             UBC                4          West Vancouver, B.C. Kinesiology 
M/F      Janelle Rice                  Calgary            4          Calgary, Alta.               Science
M/F      Amanda Woodcroft        Toronto          5          Waterloo, Ont.         Concurrent Education
F          Tegan Stairs                 Toronto          5          Kitchener, Ont.         Criminology
F          Allison Chute                Guelph             4          Greenfield Park, Que.   Animal Biology
 
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