Hockey player Melanie Vincent didn’t expect to win.
“It was a pretty big deal,” the Ladysmith raised forward said about her team’s momentous win.
Vincent, 22, plays for the South Alberta Institute of Technology Trojans.
The team just won the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference in a three-game sweep against five schools. The Trojans won 4-0 against the Mount Royal University Cougars.
“We hadn’t beat them since last year. We were 13 games win less,” said the fourth-year student.
In the final game, Vincent said the team decided to come out hard.
“We scored in the first few minutes and carried it on throughout,” she said.
“To come back and take them — it was unexpected.”
The Ladysmith Secondary School grad has been playing hockey since she was nine years old.
“I grew up playing at Fuller Lake and in Grade 12 played for the Cowichan Valley AAA Midget women’s team.”
The medical laboratory technician student said she just loves playing with the Trojans.
“The team’s great, we’re all great friends and we’re like a family.”
She said playing for SAIT is definitely a step up in terms of the level of play.
“The girls here are coming from a wider area,” she said. “We put together a pretty great calibre team.”
This was the first ACAC women’s hockey title for the Trojans since 2006 and 2007.
During the final game, Vincent, notched the game’s only power-play goal at 14:13 of the first period to give the Cougars a 2-0 advantage by the first intermission.
The game was March 18 in Alberta.