VICTORIA – With CIS national championship implications at stake, the UVic Vikes women's field hockey team edged out the visiting Calgary Dinos 2-1 in Sunday morning's matchup at the UVic turf field.

As only the top two teams in the Canada West division move on to the CIS championships in November, the second-place Vikes and the third-place Dinos knew that Sunday's game between the two would narrow the chances of one of them earning a berth into the post-season.

Perri Espeseth opened the scoring in the 52nd minute with her 5th goal of the season as she dangled in through three defenders before slipping the ball past the Dinos goaltender Stephanie Petrowitsch.

UVic's Dani Hennig potted her 4th of the season in the 56th minute on a penalty corner to lift the Vikes up by two.

Calgary's Laural Kuntz was able to net the Dinos' lone goal in the final minute of play to spoil Vikes 'keeper Kaitlyn Williams' league leading 4th shutout of the season.

The result sets up a pivotal final weekend of Canada West play next week. Victoria visits first-place UBC, while the Dinos host winless Alberta in a pair of two-game series. Calgary needs a sweep of the Pandas along with a UBC sweep of the Vikes to finish tied with Victoria for second place - a tie that would go to the Dinos because of their 2-1-1 record against their Pacific rivals during the season.

The Dinos take on the Pandas Saturday, Oct. 23 and Sunday, Oct. 24 at 1 p.m. at Hawkings Field on the UC campus.

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