They call them dynasties for a reason.

The host University of Victoria Vikes, 11 times national champions, are one win from qualifying for the 2009 Canadian Interuniversity Sport championship game while UBC, also an 11-time national champion, is through to the national final.

The Vikes remained undefeated with a win and two ties through the round-robin after holding the top-ranked Guelph Gryphons and second-ranked UBC Thunderbirds to 1-1 and 0-0 draws, respectively, in games played yesterday.

Natalie Wise, a fifth-year forward with nine caps for Team Canada, scored for UVic against Guelph before Katelin Dellandrea equalized with her tournament-best fourth goal. Perri Espeseth of Duncan was the UVic player of the game in the scoreless draw against UBC.

The Vikes can stamp their ticket to tomorrow’s championship game against undefeated UBC (2-0-1) with a win over the University of Alberta Pandas in their final round-robin game this morning at 10.

The Vikes had two wins and two ties against conference-rival Alberta in the Canada West regular season. If the Vikes prevail over Alberta, the UVic-UBC final would take on an historic element: The Vikes and Thunderbirds are tied for the CIS all-time lead in national titles and one will obviously move ahead.

“I am very proud of my players. We played twice [yesterday] and UBC and Guelph only once and we played the two top seeds to draws,” said Vikes head coach Lynne Beecroft.

“We just want to keep riding this wave.”

The Vikes, who lost all four games to conference-rival UBC in the regular season, squeezed a crucial point out of yesterday’s fifth meeting. But it proved costly with the dynamic stopper and 2008 all-Canadian defender Katie Tittler straining her MCL and lost for the rest of the tournament.

Beecroft, ever the motivator, brought up a moment from a past season when a Vikes starter went down in the national tournament and Beecroft was forced to throw on to the field raw rookie Andrea Rushton. Not only did the Vikes win the national title that year but Rushton, now Vikes assistant coach, went on to star internationally for Canada with over 200 career caps.

“Andrea rose to the occasion and used that opportunity. Now, with Katie [Tittler] out, it’s up to us to rise to the occasion,” said Beecroft.

All-Canadian netminder Kaitlyn Williams of UVic, the wild card in the deck for the third-ranked Vikes, has been outstanding in allowing one goal in three games in the national tournament. Her two tournament shutouts have pushed her number on the season to 10.

The Toronto Varsity Blues (1-1) edged Alberta (0-2) by a 2-1 count in yesterday’s other game to stay alive in the championship hunt. Bunny Hughes of Victoria was the player of the game for Alberta.

The rest of today’s round-robin action — UBC-Toronto at 12:20 p.m. and Guelph-Alberta at 4 p.m. — will be rendered moot if UVic defeats Alberta in this morning’s first game. But a tie or a Vikes loss against Alberta would leave the door open for Guelph and Toronto to slip through to play UBC in the final. If a tie-breaker game is needed, it will be played today at 5:30 p.m.