With their school’s own John Ferreira Memorial Tournament reformatted for developing teams this year, the Cowichan Secondary Thunderbirds field hockey team took the opportunity to play against some of the province’s top teams at the UBC Tournament on the last weekend of September.
The experience worked out great for the T-Birds, who won the tournament in their first trip.
“This is the first time ever that the Cowichan senior field hockey team has participated in the UBC Tournament,” Cowichan coach Caitlin Erickson said. “There were not enough teams for a competitive division in the John Ferreira Tournament this year and we decided to head to Vancouver to be able to play some games.
“This was an exciting tournament as we usually have to wait until the Bridgman Cup [on the Thanksgiving weekend] to match up against the top Vancouver teams and most of the top teams in Vancouver play in the UBC Tournament.”
Cowichan opened with a 2-0 win over Kelowna, followed by consecutive 1-1 ties against Handsworth and York House. The T-Birds then defeated Little Flower Academy 3-2 and West Vancouver 2-0.
Chloe Langkammer led Cowichan with six goals in the tournament, while her co-captain Jenna Goodman was outstanding on defence. Fellow Grade 12s Ava Smith and Madi Styba were strong in the midfield, and Sage Nowzek was a force, putting the other team’s defensive line under pressure.
The T-Birds will play in the Bridgman Cup tournament at the University of Victoria this weekend.
