Ruwaida Rehman; Dinos Communications

CALGARY – The Victoria Vikes beat the Calgary Dinos in a close match, 1-0, at Hawkings Field during a chilly afternoon on Saturday.

With the win, Victoria moves to 1-1-1 on the season, while the Dinos suffered their third loss in as many games.

Vikes first-year student Leina Dueck scored the only goal of the match during the 46th minute through the penalty corner.

The Dinos continued to display very strong defence skills throughout the game despite the persistent and assertive performance of the Vikes.

Dinos defenders Sabrina Wong and Jenna Birch-Jones made a striking pass between the two through a penalty corner during the 12th minute of the match, but Victoria goalkeeper Larissa Piva was able to knock it away.

Goalkeeper Madison Arbuckle of the Dinos saved numerous shots, including a particularly brilliant stop in the 24th minute after a battle between Victoria's Lindsay Cole and Calgary's Meghan Norlander resulted in one of the Vikes' seven short corner opportunities on the day.

Midfielder Emily Tollafield and forward Jenna Bower of the Dinos showed great proficiency in the second half of the match. Both players combined tactical skills to keep the ball away from the Dinos net as much as possible. In the 53rd minute, Bower had a glorious opportunity to score, but the ball skipped just to the left of the post and out of harm's way.

Head coach Peter Taylor was not happy with the match. "I have had better days," he said. "I am quite disappointed with today. Instead of focusing, the girls were making some errors that could have been easily avoided. We played much better and showed better last week. There is still tomorrow and we strive to do well."

The final home game of the 2017 season goes Sunday as the Dinos and Vikes face off once again.

-UC-

Photo by David Moll