The J. L. Crowe Hawks senior girls field-hockey team opened the ‘AA’ BC provincial tournament with a 4-0 victory over South Okanagan Secondary School on Wednesday.
The Hawks play host to the ‘AA’ BC Field Hockey Championship at Tamanawis Field in Surrey this week and will face the top teams in the province.
The tournament defending champion Crofton House School is back to defend their title, while Crowe advanced to the playoff round and finished a respectable fifth last year, winning the Jenny John Fair Play trophy for the team that best exemplifies integrity, fairness and respect, as selected by the umpires.
The 16-team tournament is seeded into four pools as teams play a round-robin before the top-two teams from each pool advance to playoffs.
Crowe also played GW Graham Secondary from Chilliwack on Wednesday but the score was unavailable at press time.
The Greater Trail high school faces last year’s finalist, Collingwood School, out of West Vancouver today to wrap up the preliminary round.
L.V. Rogers from Nelson also advanced to the tournament after coming in second to the Hawks in Regional play.
Playoffs begin at 1 p.m. today and continue into Friday, with the championship match going at 3 p.m.
The teams also attended a banquet on Wednesday hosted by former Team Canada player and Rossland native Thea Culley.
