Sports Notes by Steve McManus

Field Hockey Team Conclude Regular Season

It was a bitter pill to swallow for the lady panthers as they dropped two consecutive games to St. Mary's in Halifax over the weekend to finish out their regular season. On Saturday UPEI dropped a close battle 3-2, vir- tually destroying their chances for a free ticket to the CIS Championships. Scoring for the Panthers was Kirsten Currie with her team leading fourth marker in five games, and also Susan Brown picked up her first career goal in this, her second year on the team.

On Sunday it was a little different story for the Panthers as they were shutout for the second time in four games against the Huskies, 3-0. PEI native, Katie Baker was able to pick up the game winning goal for St. Mary's as they now will face the winner of the semi-final game between UPEI and the winless UNB Reds for the AUS Championships.

Semi-Final Preview

UNB looks like only a minor bump in the road for the Panther ladies as they will look for revenge against the team that kept them from going to the CIS Championships last year. For the Reds, this season has been a com- plete disaster. They have lost every game they have played and boast a record of 0-8. They have been out- matched and outplayed by their opposition this year and UPEI has had their way with them in their four meetings this season. The Panthers have played a very strong defensive- ly this season, while UNB was only to score one goal in their eight games all year long, and it wasn't against the top goaltender in the division, Ambyr Gallant.

.:page [10] October 21, 2003:.

This year the Reds have allowed their opposition to beat their keeper 30 times in only eight games. In one of those games, they allowed St. Mary's to score 11 times which makes you wonder if they even put someone between the pipes or just play the entire game with an extra attacker. St. Mary's has only scored 8 goals vs. our Panthers in four games. The girls have won all four meetings this year, with all four games resulting in shutouts for the ball stopping veteran, Ambyr Gallant.

The girls are enjoying their first ever top ten ranking in Canada as they have recently bumped York out of the number ten slot. This has. given the girls even more confidence as they look to show the country what they can do against the nations top teams. The CIS Women's Field Hockey Championships will be held at York University from Oct. 30th - Nov. 2nd.

Men's Soccer Panthers Look to - Capture Top Spot

This past weekend the men's soccer panthers grabbed four of pos- sible six points as they took three points away from a 2-1 victory in Moncton, and had to settle for a 1-1 draw against a terrible Memorial team. Following the weekends action, the panthers currently sit in a tie with UNB for top spot in the AUS Conference with 22 points. If they are successful in capturing the conference title UPEI will have the honour of hosting the AUS Championships for the second straight year in a row. It is a huge advantage to play on home turf, and the boys only have one game remaining in their regular season to do so.

Dalhousie will provide the opposi-

tion for the panthers this Sunday in Halifax. A team, like our panthers, who have rendered only one defeat this season. Dal has an experiences squad and has knocked virtually all of their competition. The panthers will have to play a strong defensive game to shut down the offence of the Tigers if they want any chance at hosting the Atlantic Championships.

Upcoming Games Include: Opponent Date Time at DAL Sun, Oct 26th 3:00

Women's Soccer Panthers Knocking on Backdoor

With two games remaining in the regular season, the girls soccer team is sitting in a tie for seventh place. The girls will need to make some- thing happen this weekend against two formidable opponents, Acadia and Dalhousie.

For the playoffs, the top two teams from each division make it as well as the two next best point totals. As it stands UPEI is in control of their own destiny, if they win this week- end, they will make the playoffs. If not, they will look back and attempt to improve for the 2004 season.

Upcoming Games Include:

Opponent Date Time at ACA Sat, Oct 25th 1:00 at DAL Sun, Oct 26th 1:00

X Women's Testosterone Prove Too Much for Lady Panthers

Our most dominant team this year recently played an exhibi- tion game against the top team in Atlantic Canada last week. So far this season the panthers were walk-

ing over every opponent they faced but the women of St. FX put an end to that. Xavier took the game 39-6

_ but don't let that score tell you any-

thing. The panthers fought hard the whole game but were unable to capi- talize on their offence chances. The broad shouldered wall of the X- Women defence proved impenetrable as our girls had to settle for two kicks in the first half.

St. FX lead at the half by a score of 10-6 and things were look- ing good for the panthers. They were pressing hard, winning line outs and minimizing the capable offence of the X-Women. However, in the sec- ond half one of the refrigerators from St. FX broke her way through half a dozen tackles to score a try that really set UPEI confidence they had built up all season. For most of the second half UPEI played defen- sively and were not able to amount much of an offensive threat. The girls gave it everything until the final whistle but were unable to put a dent in the goal line of the X- Women.

This game was the panthers first real challenge. When you are winning games by over a hundred points, it is hard to keep your mental edge and I am sure that if the girls were given a rematch or played in the same league, they would not only win, but St. FX would have a resilient opponent in our lady pan- thers.