Three Victoria field hockey players James Kirkpatrick, Kathleen Leahy and Maddie Secco played integral roles as Canadas junior mens and womens teams earned berths to the 2013 junior world championships.
Both Canadian teams came home with silver medals (losing finals to Argentina) from the Junior Pan American Cup in Guadalajara, Mexico, and the top two teams earned automatic berths to the worlds.
We have been working towards this for the past two years, said the
21-year-old Kirkpatrick, who will now suit up with the University of Victoria Vikes field hockey team. I have played in 45 junior international games but that was my last one. I will be too old play in the junior worlds.
The Pan-Ams were an awesome experience. I was playing with a great bunch of guys and it was the first time in 20 or so years that Canada made it to the final.
Kirkpatrick, a forward, collected two goals in six games, including one in the 3-2 loss in the final.
The 18-year-old Leahy played with Team Canada after missing all of last season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament.
When I came back from the injury, I was probably stronger than before it, said Leahy, who will also be wearing the blue and gold of the Vikes field hockey team. I worked as much as I could and I feel great physically. It did take some time to get my game sense back.
At the Pan-Ams, we made a strong statement to Argentina, the No.-2 ranked team in the world. We lost our pool game 6-0 to them but then we came back with a great final, losing 2-1. That was my first international tournament so it was exciting.
Leahy and the women Vikes are in action Saturday and Sunday at the UVic Field Hockey Turf against the always powerful UBC Thunderbirds. Both games start at 11 a.m.
It will be a homecoming of sorts for Leahy as the Thunderbirds have eight players who were at the Pan-Ams.
I have been playing with them for a long time and we are pretty close, said Leahy.
We have a really young team but Im confident we will do well against UBC.
Both UVic and UBC come into the weekend games with perfect 2-0 records.
The 18-year-old Secco currently attends Stanford University in California on a field hockey scholarship.
During my last visit to Stanford, I just fell in love with the campus and it seemed like a good fit for me, said Secco. The field hockey team also looked promising and we are ranked No. 11.
Secco is also a member of Canadas senior team .
After we tied Uruguay 2-2 [Secco scored both goals] in pool play, we were a little nervous about qualifying, said Secco. For us to advance, we had to come second in our pool and beat Mexico by five goals. We were up 1-0 in the second half against Mexico when we pulled the goalie and scored four goals in the last 18 minutes. We then beat Chile in the semifinal before losing to Argentina.
It was really exciting.
