Lofty CIS goals for X-Women

By Glenn MacDonald, The Chronicle-Herald

Mar 3, 2008 - It was only a short few years ago, the Atlantic university representative at the CIS women’s hockey championship was vying for the AUS’s first win at the national tournament.

The St. Francis Xavier X-Women, who had been to nationals five times before hosting it in 2006, were in that winless boat. The X-Women went 14 games without a victory before finally winning in a consolation game in 2005.

The next year, in front of their home crowd in Antigonish, the X-Women won once and lost their other two games in a shootout, falling just short of earning the Atlantic conference its first CIS medal.

This week, the X-Women return to the Canadian university championship for a seventh time. But this time their goals are much loftier.

"Our objective is not just to be competitive and win a game; we want to be a medal contender," said fourth-year winger Christina Davis. "We know we can do it now. We’ll just build off what happened in 2006."

And the X-Women, with two wins in 18 games at nationals, may just have the team to earn the Atlantic conference’s first medal.

StFX ran the table during the regular season and AUS playoffs, going 23-0 in capturing its seventh conference banner. The X-Women will try to keep the streak alive at the four-day CIS championship, beginning Friday in Ottawa. StFX is ranked fourth for the tournament

"A lot of work has finally paid off this year; we are pretty pumped for nationals," said the five-foot-nine Davis, who appeared in all 23 games, scoring 18 goals and 38 points in the regular season and playoffs combined.

"It definitely wasn’t our goal at the beginning of the year to go undefeated during the season. It was never anything anyone ever thought about during the season. Our goal was just to get to the AUS final, win it and get to the (CIS championship). But it’s pretty awesome; something that hasn’t been done before. It feels good.

"We have a strong team that works hard that will put up a great fight at nationals. We’ll just do what we did to get to the AUS and take it to Ottawa."

Many of their top players, including captain Katie Barrett, scoring forwards Brayden Ferguson and Amanda Church and goalie Katie Harvieux, were there in 2006.

But sixth-year head coach Dave Synishin said chemistry is better and attitudes are sunnier this time around and that has translated into the team’s success this season.

Davis concurs, adding that there’s a remarkable difference between this team and the one that hosted nationals two years ago.

"Chemistry is first and foremost," said Davis, who hails from Stoufville, Ont. "But we now have four lines that score, a lot of depth. And we have a lot of heart." F

or the second year in a row, the Quebec conference champion McGill Martlets will be the top seed at nationals. The defending CIS champion Alberta Pandas is ranked second followed by Wilfrid Laurier (3), Manitoba (5) and host Ottawa (6).

StFX, which will compete in Pool A with McGill and Manitoba, won’t open play until Saturday afternoon. The X-Women will face the loser of the Martlets-Bisons opening game Friday.