A pair of South Delta field hockey standouts helped the UBC Thunderbirds capture the CIS national championship.
Sophomore Jenna McNeil and freshman Sara McManus were defensive standouts as the Thunderbirds won their 13th McRae Cup in school history with a 3-1 win over the hometown University of Calgary Dinosaurs.
The gold medal game capped a hectic stretch for McManus, who jumped right into the UBC lineup after helping Canada place fourth at the Pan American Games in Mexico.
She was not only a force on the UBC back end but opened the scoring when she converted a penalty corner in the ninth minute with a shot from the top of the circle.
She would go on to be named UBC's player-of-thegame.
Calgary would later equalize before the T-Birds took control on goals by Poonam Sandhu and tournament MVP Robyn Pendleton.
Earlier, UBC went unbeaten in preliminary play with a 4-0 record, which included a 2-0 win over Guelph Gryphons.
McNeil had a key role in a terrific defensive effort as her team got off to a slow start.
"We gave up the ball more than we needed to, and were a little bit lackadaisical, and Guelph almost got a nice goal because of it," said UBC head coach Hash Kanjee.
"But our defence played great today. Jenna, Miranda (Mann) and Caitlin (Evans) were all solid and made a big difference in the outcome today."
A snowstorm on Friday had tournament officials scrambling to clear the field and pushed the schedule back by three hours.
