November 3 - The Victoria Vikes will meet the UBC Thunderbirds in the Canada West finals on Sunday, after a nail-biting finish against the Manitoba Bisons in the semi finals was capped off with a Vikes goal in the 118th minute.

Moira Hood was the hero for Victoria on Sunday. After a number of good scoring chances for both teams produced nothing for 118 minutes of soccer, the fourth-year forward finally found the back of the net on a play didn't resemble a scoring chance at all. Bisons keeper Ashley Forbes was at the top of the 18 yard box to clear a loose ball, but her attempt was blocked and the ball fell to Hood, who lobbed it over Forbes and a couple of Manitoba defenders, and into the open net to send Victoria to the finals and earn them a spot in the CIS national tournament with a 1-0 victory.

"It was a nail biter, but we didn't expect anything less," said Victoria coach Tracy David. "When you're in the Canada West playoffs, every team is going to fight to the bitter end. Certainly Manitoba did, and they had scoring chances too. Clutch performance by Moira Hood, who was actually coming in off the bench to take a possible penalty kick for us, and she was able to get the game winner before it went that far."

The game was very closely contested for the entire 120 minutes, with both teams having chances to get on the board well before Victoria finally did. Manitoba's best chance came in the 34th minute, when Karli Colpitts collected a loose ball off a corner kick and hit a shot to the lower left corner of the net, only to be denied by Vikes defender Nellanna Kurylo, who cleared the ball off the line. Victoria had 22 shots and Manitoba had 15. Kasia Gwizada had six saves in net to pick up the shutout for the Vikes, while Forbes made nine for the Bisons.

With the win, the Vikes are guaranteed a spot in the CIS tournament in Cape Breton. They have one more game to worry about before nationals however, and it's a big one, as Victoria will face off against Canada West rivals UBC in the conference championship game on Sunday afternoon.

"UBC has great team chemistry right now," said David. "They are playing very well and they have a lot of confidence. They are certainly a top team in Canada West, and there is a bit of rivalry there for sure. In the regular season, we each beat eachother once, so it's going to be a battle tomorrow."

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