Vikes in need of a win

It's not very often that you see the UVic Men's Rugby team drop back to back losses at Wallace Field. After losing 32-23 against Gordon Head rivals Velox on Feb. 28, Meraloma edged out the Vikes last weekend with a convincing 38-28 win.

With five of their starters returning this weekend against the Castaway Wanderers, however, Friday night's match at Centennial Stadium will be a different story.

The Vikes were missing key players at the breakdown as Meraloma drove them back through grinding pick-and-drive tactics. Despite strong tackling by John Moonlight and the front row, UVic's forwards were missing some key tackles that saw them retreat for much of the 80 minutes. Adam Kleeberger and Neil Meechan should make a huge difference with their tenacious tackling and quick breaks from the scrums.

Despite strong running from Ben Grant and Kyle Buckley over the past couple of weeks, the Vikes haven't run up the score lines like they did in the fall semester. Gordie Sawers, Jordan Kozina and Phil Mackenzie could make the difference if they're back in the line up after their tough exit from the RWC Sevens.

The Castaway Wanderers are on a three game win streak at the moment and with the return of Ciaran Hearn to their lineup, won't be looking to concede any points to the Vikes. The sides split their two regular season meetings in the fall. This one might go down to the wire but the returning UVic starters just might make the difference.

Dykstra is best women's basketball in Canada, while Forsbauer completes comeback year

The awards for Kayla Dykstra and Vanessa Forstbauer just seem to keep on coming. Last night at the 2009 CIS Banquet Awards dinner, Dykstra and Forstbauer received national recognition for their outstanding seasons. Dykstra claimed the CIS Player of the Year award, to go along with her Canada West Player of the Year honours. The six-foot-two post was in a league of her own this season, leading the conference in field-goal percentage, scoring and rebounding. The Horn has dedicated probably 10000 words on Dykstra's sensational season and there really isn't anything more to say.

Other than this.

She is the best womens college basketball player in the country. Period.




The return to basketball for Forstbauer was officially complete on Thursday, as Vanessa captured the National Comeback Player of the Year award. Vanessa returned to the Vikes lineup this season after missing all of the 2007-08 season due to a complication in her heart. She is the first Vikes player to ever win this award

Velox the Real McCoy

In the battle for McCoy road bragging rights, the Velox Valhallians prevailed 32-23 over the shorthanded Vikes.

Andrew Smith was at the game and submitted this report and video.

Neil Meechan named as Canadian Sevens Captain

The Canadian National Senior Men's Sevens team is off to Dubai on Friday, Feb. 27 for the Rugby World Cup Sevens. On the roster of Canada's 12 top sevens players are five Vikes - one of which has just been named Captain.
Neil Meechan may not be a man of many words but he certainly leads by example. Whether it's on the international sevens circuit or back home playing in the CDI Premier Leauge, Meechan's opponents fear him and his teammates look up to him. He's a tough player known for his aggression and quickness at the breakdown.
The national side is certainly in good hands as they face off against South Africa, Scotland and Japan during their opening day of competition.

Kayla D = MVP, Forstbauer receives comeback award, and Gudgeon an All-star

Kayla Dykstra
In the most shocking news of the year, Kayla Dykstra of the Vikes women's basketball was named the Canada West MVP.

Who would have ever thought the leader in scoring (18.6 p/g), leader in rebounding (11.2 p/g), the owner of the leagues top field goal percentage (61%) and the catalyst to the best defensive team in the conference would win the award. Still can't believe it.

All jokes and sarcasm aside, Kayla Dykstra put together just an unbelievable year of basketball. She was destined to win this award from about January onward and was about as sure a bet as President Obama was on Election day.

Night in and night out Dykstra would craft double double performances like she was working the 24 hour drive-through at Tim Hortons. To finish out the regular season Kayla D would put together back-to-back weekends worthy of Canada West Player of the Week recognition. I would stay posted to the Horn because there could, and probably should, be one more award. Possibly a CIS National Player of the Year award? Time will tell.

Vanessa Forstbauer
You don't usually think about your heart. It's just something that you take for granted. It keeps you going and pumps blood. But students that have never struggled through Human Anatomy at UVic really have no clue how it works, other than it beats and can be crushed on Prom Night.

Yet for the Vikes Vanessa Forstbauer, her heart became the only thing she could think about. Forstbauer began to notice something was abnormal with her heart roughly two years ago during a Vikes practice. At first, Forstbauer and numerous doctors thought she had an irregular heartbeat. The problem wouldn't subside however, becoming more persistent and noticeable with every practice.

Forstbauer was forced to take a year off and undergo a surgical procedure. After numerous tests, it was discovered that the Chilliwack native had what is referred to as Supraventricular Tachycardia (SVT). In English it mean that she had extra electrical tissue in her heart, or a short circuit, that caused increased heart rate and palpitations. The surgery performed successfully froze that extra tissue, making it torment, and thus allowing her heart to pump out the correct amount of blood during exercise.

When the 2008-09 basketball season came around Forstbauer was ready to return to the Vikes lineup. She didn't miss a beat. The third year forward started in all but one of the Vikes games, finishing second on the team in both points (8.2 p/g) and rebounds (7.0 p/g). Hustle, grit and hard work were just a few adjectives to describe Forstbauer's unwavering contribution to the Vikes this past season.

For her amazing return to the court, Forstbauer was awarded the recipient of the Tracy McLeod award as the Canada West Comeback Player of the Year.

Mitch Gudgeon
The Senior from Oak Bay was selected to the Canada West second team all-star team for his efforts during his swan song season. The big man led the Vikes in scoring (15.6 p/g) rebounding (10.1 p/g) and dunks over seven footers. His rebounding totals ranked 3rd amongst conference leaders and point total ranked him 15th amongst league leaders.

Stats aside, Gudgeon left a lasting impression with the Vikes program on and off the court. This selection is the final chapter to what was a terrific collegiate career.

Re-cap

In case you're just tuning in this would be my "first post" seeing as I had to remove my last post. A long story short, my last post was considered "campaigning too early" when I said that I was running for the UVSS elections! So I had to remove the post and was disqualified! It's an unfortunate scenario, but more bizarre than anything. If you plan on running for the elections be sure to read the entire 20 page manual of do's and don'ts from section A to J plus all the miscellaneous sub headings in between! They have no leniance towards inexperienced first-time nominees apparently! My only thought is that they miss out on a chance to finally include a whole other percentage of campus population for once and not just the same people who run and same people who vote. Oh well! Maybe next time!

As co-president of the varsity council I thought I would also take this opportunity to update you on what's on the go! First and foremost... February athletes of the month:

TEAM of the month: Women's basketball
FEMALE athlete: Kayla Dykstra (Women's Bball)
MALE athlete: Doug Csima (Men's Rowing)

A special shout out to Kayla!! She was just named Canada West MVP and her team mate Vanessa also won a major award so congratulations to both of you on a great season!!

In the works with the Varsity council are the following:

• "Rubik's Cube Pubcrawl" held mid to end of March (each sport will be dressed as a certain colour from a rubik's cube and by the end of the night you must have talked to someone on the other teams and collected an article of clothing or accessory of each colour!) Tickets will be on sale soon!
• Athlete and Awards banquet (+Vikes Hall of Fame) April 1st I believe is the date and we will be organizing a get-together afterwards so plan ahead wisely!
  
• Graduating players ceremony will be held separate from the banquet so look out for more news regarding that!

That's all for an update on my end! Congrats again to the Men's and Women's basketball teams for a great canada west season, to the Women's soccer team for a good record in Florida over reading break, and to McKenzie Downing and the swim team for a solid performance at Nationals!!!

Campus Showdown

All of us students have sauntered down it before at some point during our time at UVic. Heading to Ian Stewart for a workout from campus or stumbling home from a night at Felicitas, McCoy Road is a staple thoroughfare for UVic students. Yet perhaps you didn't know that the skinny road is the only thing that separates the UVic Vikes rugby team's Wallace Field and their arch rival Velox Valhallians home pitch.

This rivalry has taken a backstage over the past few years due to the Valhallians futility in both the Island and Premier League. But so far in 2009 the Valhallians have been far from league bottom feeders, jumping out a 4-0-1 record and currently sitting atop the CDI B.C. Premier League standings.

Saturday at Wallace Field the Valhallians would love nothing more than to upset the undefeated Vikes and assert themselves as the team to beat not just in Gordon Head, but on the Island.

Kick-off for this much anticipated showdown will go at 2:45.

Spartans roster gaffe nearly gives Vikes second life

There were a few moments on Tuesday where it looked like the UVic Vikes men's basketball team would be given a second chance in the 2009 Canada West Playoffs. Days after losing in the elimination Game 3 to the Trinity Western Spartans, the Vikes discovered that there was something not quite right with the Spartans lineup in Game 2 and 3.

The violation was simple. The Spartans broke the playoff rule that teams must "freeze their roster lineups at 12 through an entire three game playoff series." Simply put, the rule states that the same 12 players that dress for game one must be in the lineup for each proceeding game in the series, and no new player (a 13th player) may draw into game 2 or 3 regardless of injury, illness or fatigue to the original 12 players.

This is what Trinity Western did.

12 players played game one. 12 players saw the floor in game one. Nothing wrong with that.

But in game two, Spartans rookie Head Coach Scott Allen would elect to insert Daniel Demian into the lineup and take out Ryan Froese. And than in game 3, Allen would dangle with his lineup again, scratching Joe Vroom and inserting Froese back into the lineup.

The musical chairs on the bench is fine during the regular season, but is a no-no in post season basketball. It gave a clear advantage to the Spartans as it allowed them to insert fresh legs in for game two and three. In each of the three games all 12 Spartans players saw floor time.

This violation of Canada West rules was hotly discussed on CIS Blogs and discussion boards across Canada and had many thinking that the Spartans could, and maybe should, be forced to forfeit the series against the Vikes.

So yesterday, after hours of speculation the Canada West came down with their decision. Rather than force the Spartans to forfeit the series, or at the very least, make the Spartans and Vikes replay Game 3, the Canada West suspended Scott Allen for two games and fined Trinity Western Athletics Department $1000 dollars.

The Horn understands that forcing the Spartans to forfeit the series with the Vikes may be slightly unfair and a bit extreme. The Spartans players had nothing to do with this inexcusable mistake made by their rookie head coach. However, you cannot deny that the Spartans got a sizable advantage by having a fresh body on their bench in each game. Remember the Vikes lost by just one in game 1 and by just two in game 3. You're telling me that a rested player in a three game series doesn't make a difference in a two point game. Come on!

Furthermore, the two game ban for Allen is inconsequential.

Take a look at the Canada West playoff picture. There is pretty much no conceivable way that the Spartans don't get the wild card berth into the Canada West Final Four. They have the third highest CIS National Rankings of the six playoff teams remaining. Yes, Allen will miss the upcoming weekend series against the UBC Thunderbirds at War Memorial. Who Cares!
It doesn't matter if the Spartans lose by 10 or by 50. They will in all likelihood get that berth into the CW Final Four and be within one victory of going to nationals in Ottawa.

Meanwhile, over on the Island basketball is finished.

After the way the Vikes lost game one and three, to now have this happen is just a terrible way to finish a promising year.
The roller coaster of emotions that the players must have felt over the past few days. Unimaginable. I don't understand why they couldn't have had a winner take all game on Thursday at War Memorial with the winner taking on the T-Birds.

I never in my wildest dreams would think that i would write the following three words on the Horn.

But it's all that Vikes fans can do now.

GO BIRDS GO

Spartans, Birds crush Vikes dreams

Ouch!

This one is going to sting for a long time. A very long time.

Playoff basketball came to a screeching halt Saturday night, as both the Vikes men's and women's basketball teams dropped heart breakers in do-or-die situations.

The Men (Game 3 vs TWU)

Over in Langley the men came out in the do-or-die game three flatter than a 99 cent slice of Second Slice Pizza. The Spartans used their crazy crowd at the David E. to jump out to a 25-16 first quarter lead. They would keep the pedal-to-the-medal in the second Q and would enter the break up by 27 points! Over Right?
Nope! As whatever Coach Beau said, or most likely yelled, during the break it was heard loud and clear by the Vikes, as they came out in the final 20 minutes a team possessed.

Led by Senior Tyler Hass, the Vikes erased the massive deficit with a 25 point explosion in the 3rd quarter. Hass, playing in what would be his final game of his hallmark collegiate career, poured in 22 points and refused to let his team go quietly into the night. Hass hit what TWU's radio announcer would call a "NBA sized 3" with 24 seconds left to cut the Spartans lead to 85-80. He would than be fouled on a three-point-attempt with just 15 seconds left. The Victoria native would hit his first two but miss the third. Jacob Doerksen would grab the 'board and than stick it to his former teammates by knocking down both his free throws to put his squad back up by 5. However, Hass would rise up again as he nailed yet another bomb from the corner to put the Vikes back within two with less than 10 seconds to go. But after Lous Hurd missed both his free throws the Vikes were unable to grab the board, allowing Jamie Vaughn to swoop in and grab the loose ball. Devastating way to lose a game, as the Vikes and the red hot Hass were unable to muster up a final attempt for a game tying shot.

After what transpired in Game 1 (see video in post below), to have this happen in Game 3...just devastating. Being down 27 at half and than to come that close in front of that crazy crowd. Heartbreaking.

One shot was the difference between a date with UBC at War Memorial gym and going home for good. An unfair outcome for a team that was far too good to have their season end in mid-February. This team was built for success in the playoffs. Built on defence and grit. But as the CIS BLOG mentioned, the competition in the Pacific Division is outstanding.

You have to feel for the Seniors Hass and Gudgeon. They wanted nothing more than a return trip to Ottawa for Nationals.

Still a very solid year for a team that climbed as high as No. 6 in the CIS National Polls and put together a regular season record of 17-6. However, the rebuilding process and forward thinking must start, and start quickly, as next year the Vikes will have some massive spots to fill with the absence of Hass and Gudgeon.

The Women (Game 2 UBC)

As painful as the outcome from the men's series in Langley, perhaps what transpired on the Island was even more gut-wrenching.

The lady Vikes were playing a do-or-die game of their own, down 1-0 in their series against the defending National champs from UBC.

The women also had a halftime deficit of their own to overcome, as an absolute abysmal 2nd quarter had the Vikes down 8 heading into the halftime break.

But Ashley Yee, the only fourth/fifth year player on the Vikes, put her squad on her back in the 2nd half and led the charge as the Vikes clawed their way back and actually led by two heading into the final quarter. Yee finished the night with 18 points and gave the Vikes some much needed secondary scoring as the Birds were draped over Kayla Dykstra all series long.

The final ten minutes had both teams get some clutch buckets from the most unlikely of sources. Two rookies, T-Birds Lia St. Pierre and Vikes Debbie Yeaboah, played liked seasoned veterans down the stretch as they exchanged back-and-forth buckets. With the score tied at 62 with only 30 seconds left, UBC had the ball and held for last shot. The 'Birds would miss their shot however and the Vikes Dykstra would grab the board. But it was the rookie St. Pierre who darted into the key to steal the Dykstra outlet pass and go hard to the rack before Dykstra was forced to foul her. With the Vikes season on the line, St. Pierre would deliver the knock-out blow by calmly draining both foul shots. Unreal poise shown by the recruit from Moncton, New Brunswick.

A great regular season record and likely a MVP award for Kayla Dykstra could not translate into any sort of post-season run for the Vikes. But it will be used as a painful learning experience for the Vikes, as unlike the men, the ladies lose nobody from this years squad. They will be right back here next year, and this bitter defeat will go along way in terms of experience and motivation for the upcoming summer workouts.


Two season's ending much too quickly for the Horns liking.

That's sport though, and as they say "there is always next year".......i guess.

Some mayhem on the mainland, and upsets on the Island

First off gotta say sorry for the delay in getting a new playoff post up on the Horn. A couple of ferry rides will cause that.

But how about the series that is shaping up over in Langley! Wow. The Horn was over there on Thursday and what an absolute mad house the David E. Enarson Gymnasium is. Just a incredible atmosphere and an incredible game Thursday night. The Vikes weathered an early Spartans storm and battled all the way back to actually lead by 5 with 4 minutes to go. However, "The Shot Hurd Round the Pacific" would come in the final seconds of the contest as Spartans gurad Louis Hurd hit a buzzer beating 3 to give the Spartans the 64-63 victory. The highlights from game 1 can be viewed below or on the UVicVikes channel on youtube

Yet, the resilient Vikes who only lost back-to-back games once all season long battled back in game 2 on Friday night. Led by Jeff Cullen's game high 24 points, including 9 in the final frame helped the Vikes stave off elimination and force a deciding game 3 tonight at the David E. The place should just be a nut house again but the Vikes have the momentum on their side and are really thriving playing in front of a hostile crowd. Game 3, winner take all. What more could you ask for!!!

Over on the Island the UBC T-Birds women's flew into McKinnon Gym and stunned the UVic Vikes with a 57-54 victory. The Birds had a great game plan as they completely devised their defence around shutting down the Vikes superstar post Kayla Dykstra. It worked as Dykstra was held quite for the majority of the night. The Vikes will need a complete four quarter effort in game two and start hitting those free throws if they want to extend this series to Sunday.

Its do-or-die time for both our Vikes teams, so get out to McKinnon and cheer on our girls than tune into TWU's radio broadcast and listen into the boys!