A total of eight women's teams qualified to compete at the games. The top two teams at the South American and Central American and Caribbean Games qualified for the tournament. The host nation (Canada) automatically qualified as well. The remaining three spots were e given to the three best teams from the 2013 Pan American Cup that had not qualified yet. This happened after the two qualification tournaments in 2014 were played. Each nation may enter one team (16 athletes per team).[4][5]
Pools were based on the world rankings as of January 21, 2015. Teams were placed into pools using the serpentine system. Teams ranked 1, 4, 5 and 8 would be in Pool A, while teams ranked 2, 3, 6 and 7 would be in Pool B.[6]
Rankings are listed in parentheses.
In the first round of the competition, teams were divided into two pools of four teams, and play followed round robin format with each of the teams playing all other teams in the pool once. Teams were awarded three points for a win, one point for a draw and zero points for a loss.[2]
Following the completion of the pool games, all eight teams advanced to a single elimination round consisting of four quarterfinal games, two semifinal games, and the bronze and gold-medal matches. Losing teams competed in classification matches to determine their ranking in the tournament. A penalty stroke competition took place, if a classification match ended in a draw, to determine a winner.[2]
All games were played in four 15 minute quarters.[2]
As per statistical convention in field hockey, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws.
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