The new home ice of the STU Tommies will play host to the Canadian Interuniversity Sport Women’s Hockey Championship for 2014.
The tournament will take place March 5-9 at the Grant Harvey Centre. It will be the first time the university hosts a CIS championship.
“This is great news for our university and our student athletes,” said President and Vice-Chancellor Dennis Cochrane in a press release.
The Grant Harvey Centre was originally scheduled to be ready for use in September but is now expected to open in March 2012.
“Our new hockey facility at Grant Harvey will be an ideal venue for a national championship and this event will have a particular resonance with our community as our enrolment is 70 per cent female,” said Cochrane.
“I want to thank the City of Fredericton and the Province of New Brunswick for supporting our bid. Like the recent success of Congress 2011, it shows a united focus in raising the profile of our university and city,” he added.
According to the press release, seven universities from across the country bid for the championship. The women’s tournament will be hosted by the University of Alberta in 2012, the University of Toronto in 2013 and the University of Calgary in 2015.
“We are quite honoured to be awarded the CIS Women’s Hockey Championships for 2014,” said Mike Eagles, Athletics Director at St. Thomas University.
“We’ve hosted two other national championships, but this is our first for the CIS. With the opportunity to host the pre-eminent women’s hockey competition in the country, we want to stage an unforgettable event that is focused on the student athlete and will further raise the profile of women’s hockey in the region.”
This year STU women’s hockey team finished their season tied for third at 10-11-3 in the Atlantic University Sport Women’s Hockey Conference.
