Canadian women's field hockey team keeps Olympic dream alive with win at qualifying tourney

The Canadian women's field hockey team blanked Malaysia 3-0 on Sunday, bouncing back from an opening 2-0 loss to Britain at an FIH Olympic Qualifier in Valencia, Spain.

Sara McManus scored twice and Thora Rae had the other goal for the 17th-ranked Canadians, who are looking to get to the Summer Games for the first time since 1992.

The eight-team Valencia competition is one of two last-chance women's qualifiers, with another event running simultaneously in India. The top three finishers from each book their ticket to the Paris Games this summer.

Canada is in a pool with Great Britain (7th), Spain (8th) and Malaysia (18th). Like their male counterparts, the Canadian women have to beat two of the three teams in their pool to advance to the semifinals.

The Canadian women have a day off before facing Spain in a must-win game Tuesday with Britain taking on Malaysia.

Spain upset Britain 1-0 to improve to 2-0-0 atop Pool B. Canada (1-1-0) is second, ahead of Britain (1-1-0) on a tiebreaker. No. 18 Malaysia (0-2-0) is at the bottom.

While Britain is unranked by the International Hockey Federation (FIH), it draws on No. 6 England, No. 16 Scotland and No. 26 Wales.

Absolute scenes from Valencia as Canada takes down Malaysia at the FIH Olympic Qualifiers. Canada looks ahead to Tuesday's do-or-die match vs Spain.<br><br>Action shots from today's game:<a href="https://t.co/9vRwNnLI7q">https://t.co/9vRwNnLI7q</a><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FIHOlympicQualifiers?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FIHOlympicQualifiers</a> <a href="https://t.co/SdVO1bfmqf">pic.twitter.com/SdVO1bfmqf</a>

McManus, of Tsawwassen, B.C., gave Canada the lead on its first penalty corner in the third minute, scoring on a low shot. In the second quarter,