Ali Baggott, Vikes Athletics

VICTORIA - Field Hockey Canada announced a touring squad of 27 as a part of their upcoming NextGEN Training Tour set for Feb. 7-17 in Chula Vista, Calif. Among the list are first-year University of Victoria Vikes women's field hockey player Leina Dueck (North Vancouver) and Anna Mollenhauer(Victoria). This will be the first national team tour for Dueck, while Mollenhauer has been involved with both the junior and senior national team trainings over the past few years.

"I'm very pleased for Anna and Leina to have been selected to the San Diego tour with the Junior National field hockey squad," said Lynne Beecroft, Vikes women's field hockey head caoach. "As rookies, they were two of the top goal scorers for the Vikes this season. As a forward, Leina used her great hand-eye coordination, and tipped in our first three goals of the season.  Anna demonstrated her ability to overlap from her defensive position and scored some amazing tomahawk goals. Hopefully this tour will provide them with more skills; thus, they will return to score more key goals for the Vikes women's field hockey team next season."

The Vikes women's field hockey program finished this year as Canada West silver medalists and Mollenhauer was named the Canada West Rookie of the Year as well as a Canada West All-Star.  The rookie duo led the Vikes in scoring this year as Dueck finished the season with three goals and was the only Vike to score in their opening five games, while Mollenhauer had a strong close to the season scoring four goals in the last three games. 

The NextGEN junior training tour will parallel a senior women's national team training tour that is happening Feb. 13-26, also in Chula Vista. The field hockey complex is part of the Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Centre and was previously the centralized home to the USA national team before they relocated to Lancaster, Pennysylvania. 

Also named to the tour are UBC Thunderbirds Hannah Eborall, Thora Rae, Jordyn Faiczak, Sara Goodman and Margaret Pham, as well as York's Frankie St. Louis.

For a full training roster click here.