Junior Women coming together to perform on the World’s biggest stage
The Junior Women’s National Team will travel to Santiago, Chile for the 2025 FIH Hockey Women’s Junior World Cup, taking place from December 1–13. The tournament will feature 24 under-21 national teams competing at the Centro Deportivo de Hockey Césped. Canada enters Pool E alongside Australia, Spain, and Scotland, aiming to build on their back-to-back World Cup qualifications and improve on their 16th-place finish in 2022.
The women’s roster features players from British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario with the majority currently training and competing in university and collegiate programs across Canada and the United States. The 18-player squad represents 13 different clubs and universities, showcasing the diversity of the athlete development pathway.
The team features three returners from the 2023’s iteration of the Junior World Cup in Nicole Poulakis, Katie Gibb and Maddie Skeans. The team will rely on the experience of these three plus the recent experience of most of the team from the Junior Pan American Games in Paraguay in August, where Canada finished fifth. The recent international experience along with the current form from university hockey, this team will come into the World Cup battle-tested and ready to match the speed of international hockey.
Team Canada finished fifth at the Junior Pan American Games in Paraguay.
Head Coach Kyle Marks is in his first year of leading this group and now has a major games under his belt from August. He said their key takeaways from the Junior Pan American Games is about trusting their process and playing their game. He said they are excited to take on the international challenge and will be focusing on blending their different environments into a winning unit.
“This World Cup is a major step for our group to measure ourselves against the best in the world, and we’re bringing in a squad that includes players with valuable international experience. Our challenge will be coming together quickly as a team, but we believe that with the right focus we can build the cohesion needed to compete at this level, Marks said. “Each athlete arrives having been tested in different ways, and when those perspectives and skills come together, they make us a stronger and more adaptable group.”
TEAM CANADA ROSTER
NO. | PLAYER NAME | POSITION | HOMETOWN | CLUB |
---|---|---|---|---|
12 | Wynn Brown | DEF | Vancouver, BC | Lynx Field Hockey Club |
28 | Zoe Furber | MID | Vancouver, BC | University of Maine |
4 | Katherine Gibb | DEF | Vancouver, BC | Lafayette Leopards |
10 | Kenzie Girgis | MID | Ottawa, ON | UBC Thunderbirds |
22 | Stella Goddard-Despot | FWD | North Vancouver, BC | Monmouth University |
5 | Prabnoor Hundal | MID/FWD | Surrey, BC | Tigers Field Hockey Club |
9 | Madison Hunter | MID/FWD | Victoria, BC | Lynx Field Hockey Club |
29 | Sydney Le | FWD | North Vancouver, BC | SEAtoSKY |
18 | Stella Malinowski | Midfield | Vancouver, BC | Vancouver Hawks |
21 | Rylie Novak | MID | Vancouver, BC | Vancouver Hawks |
25 | Pascale Pottier | GK | Sevenoaks, UK | Knole Park Hockey Club |
2 | Nicole Poulakis | FWD | Ajax, ON | University of New Hampshire |
15 | Calista Schwartz | DEF | Vancouver, BC | Monmouth University |
27 | Megan Schienbein | DEF | North Vancouver, BC | Holy Cross University |
24 | Madeline Skeans | MID | Calgary, AB | University of Toronto |
7 | Shannon Stelling | DEF | Vancouver, BC | UBC Thunderbirds |
13 | Rebecca Stone | MID | Victoria, BC | UVIC Vikes |
26 | Mary Yang | GK | Calgary, AB | University of Toronto |
ALTERNATES | ||||
33 | Sadie Lee | FWD | Vancouver, BC | SEAtoSKY |
17 | Kaitlyn Pennefather | MID | North Vancouver, BC | SEAtoSKY |
STAFF NAME | ROLE | |||
Kyle Marks | Head Coach |