Victoria women's field hockey set for U Sports championship amid new era

Balance. It's a simple concept, but it's everything the University of Victoria Vikes women's field hockey team has strived for in the 2023 U Sports season. 

At the beginning of each year, the coaching staff lays out a theme for the student-athletes that defines how they approach the season. For 2023, a year full of adjustments, it was a bicycle, with every aspect of the program playing a role — when everything came together, they had balance. 

"The idea helps us get into the gears of our game; it reminds us that every part of a bike is critical, and riding a bike is not always going to be easy; there's going to be ups and downs, and we just have to keep going," Brooke Furtado, a third-year forward said. 

"To have balance on a bike, everything needs to work together. So there's unity within the bike and unity within the team."

The 2023 season has been a shifting year for the Vikes field hockey program. After 39 years as head coach, Lynne "Buzz" Beecroft stepped down from her role, in which she led the team to 14 U Sports championships. Krista Thompson, her assistant of 26 years and former university field hockey standout, took over. 

At the same time, the group moved on from eight critical players, including many now representing Canada on the international stage. While Beecroft was often around to help the transition as a mentor coach, the Vikes are Thompson's team now. 

"It's been challenging and rewarding this year. We have such a young group, and you can't really replace experience," Thompson, the first-year head coach, said. "We had our ups and downs this year and faced a lot of adversity. I think you have to manage expectations and emotions, and with a younger team, that's a little more difficult."

Whoever the opponent, fans can watch Victoria's hunt for a fourth straight U Sports women's field hockey championship on CBC Sports digital platforms, streaming live on cbcsports.ca and CBC Sports' YouTube channel. 

While Victoria has been a consistent powerhouse for Canadian university field hockey, the last three years have been exceptional. Before an early season 2-1 loss to the UBC Thunderbirds, the Vikes had not dropped a regular-season game since 2018. 

UBC opened the scoring six minutes into that game and won with a 54th-minute goal. Dejected early, Thompson brought the group in for a halftime team talk and didn't once focus on what happened on the pitch or field hockey. 

Although the team dropped the game, a focus on everything off the pitch in that proved critical. From that point, the Vikes didn't lose another game all season. 

Buzz's legacy and mantra critical to success

The team faced several other challenging moments throughout the season, with the title decided on the final weekend. However, its growth came through unique team ideals and internal competition known as the P.A.T.S program.

An acronym for "personal accountability, passion, accountability, adaptability, time, trust, service and support," the ideals of the manta, set forth by Beecroft, serve as a guide for the group.

Even though many players are familiar with one another, 17 of whom hail from Victoria or other communities on Vancouver Island, the program allows the team to strive for high standards in practice and set the tone for the program off the field. 

WATCH | Victoria wins the 2022 U Sports women's field hockey championship:

"The team is split into three groups, and we do activities within those groups. It gives us a little extra motivation to keep each other accountable and responsible, as well as just a little bit of friendly competition," fourth-year defender Chloe Langkhammer said. 

While the 2023 season has brought immense change for the Vikes, it shows how ingrained Beecroft's set culture is within the field hockey program. Fittingly, on the final day of the season, ahead of the eventual Canada West championship-winning contest, the university announced that the field hockey pitch would be renamed the Lynne "Buzz" Beecroft Field. 

Through it all, it's a balancing act, and their success only comes through the theme of the season – a bicycle, with every aspect of the team coming together at the right time. 

"We're not going to the U Sports championship talking about winning because that's not what this program does," Thompson said. "I'm a firm believer that if we stick to the process, results will take care of themselves. Winning a national championship isn't easy."

Around the U Sports world

• U Sports and Tennis Canada announced that tennis will become a U Sports-sanctioned sport in 2024, with full membership possible for the following season. 26 U Sports member schools have tennis programs in Canadian University Tennis competitions. 

• The UBC Thunderbirds captured the Canada West women's rugby championship with a 10-0 win over the Victoria Vikes. The national championship is in Quebec City, streaming live on CBC Sports from Nov. 2-6. 

• The St. Francis Xavier University X-Women completed a perfect soccer regular season, going 12-0-0 to top the Atlantic University Sport standings. They now look towards the conference championships, hoping to book a spot at the national tournament in Kingston, Ont.