“It’s deja vu all over again,” Yogi Bear used to tell his little compatriot Boo-Boo. The field hockey Dinos went winless and scored just one goal for the second disappointing season in a row. First-year Dinos forward Nicole Gains had the honour of scoring the team’s solitary goal in a 6-1 loss to the University of Alberta Pandas in Vancouver during the Western Division’s last tournament of the regular season Oct. 13-15.
The Dinos’ other results reflected the power of their Canadian Interuniversity Sport opponents as they lost 5-0 to the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds and then 6-0 to the University of Victoria Vikes.
Victoria won the right to host the Canada West championships after edging UBC 1-0 and finishing their season undefeated. UBC and the U of A will compete with the Vikes Oct. 20-22 to determine the western title. On Nov. 2-5 the CIS national championship will be held at UBC. One of those three Canada West teams will undoubtedly take the title as has been the case for the last four years. Last year’s best Canada East team, the University of Toronto, lost to the current champs the U of A by the Dino-like score of 5-0.
The Dinos have shown themselves to be competitive with the Canada East teams but unless the CIS format changes, they will never have the opportunity to play those teams in anything but unrecognized, pre-season friendlies.