Tigers tie Panthers in round robin action

On a beautiful, crisp afternoon in Charlottetown, the hometown PEI Panthers and the Dalhousie Tigers played to a thrilling 1-1 draw to close out the first day of action from the 2025 university championships. The powerhouse of the Atlantic, UPEI, trailed for much of the game but late heroics saved the day in a tight regional matchup.

Dalhousie came into the tournament as the second-place finisher out of the Atlantic University Field Hockey League, returning to the national tournament for the first time in over a decade. They have two all-Canadians in fourth-years Sanne Meijer vanLoendersloot, and Molly Doyle leading a veteran squad with some quality youth (Rookie of the Year nominee Sarah Viau) and a boatload of experience (seven upper classwomen).

The UPEI Panthers are led by coach of the year Lacey MacLauchlan and Atlantic conference MVP and all-Canadian Kayla Batchilder. They are coming off their fourth consecutive Atlantic title and looking to do some damage at the national tournament.

Dalhousie was looking for some redemption after dropping the Atlantic final 3-0 to UPEI. The Tigers brought the early pressure. Both teams earned some circle entries and PCs in the first half, but Dal largely carried the play. Mid way through the second quarter, Abby Henn escaped the D for a breakaway and earned a penalty stroke. Meijer vanLoendersloot made no mistake firing the stroke shot top corner to give Dal the 1-0 lead heading into the second half.

Dalhousie's coach, Danielle Dempsey had her team looking airtight and fired up as they jumped on the Panthers again in the third quarter. But there was lots of fight left in MacLauchlan's side as they earned several PCs in the final minutes of the third. The fourth quarter saw the day-light dimming, but the action heating up. The Panthers found their attacking confidence and put the Tigers under pressure right to the bitter end. Batchilder showed why she was the leading goal-scorer in the Atlantic this season as she finished off a broken play in tight, tying the game in the last two minutes.

The horn sounded, ending the first day of play in dramatic fashion. At the end of day one, it's all square across the board with two draws. Tomorrow's matchups feature UVic taking on Dalhousie and UPEI facing York.  Catch all the action from the Field Hockey Canada University Championships on the CBC Sports YouTube Channel.