Season Recap
The Western Mustangs women’s field hockey team came within penalty strokes from advancing to their first CIS Championship tournament since 2003. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be, as the University of Toronto Varsity Blues eliminated the Mustangs with a 3-2 shootout win in the OUA semifinals after the teams had played to a 1-1 draw in regulation.
But the Mustang women regrouped after the disappointing loss, showing great resiliency to earn a come-from-behind 3-2 win over the York Lions to capture the team’s second straight OUA bronze medal. Rookie forward Megan Scraper (West Vancouver, BC) scored the eventual game-winner in the 58th minute of the contest.
The Western women have come a long way since 2005, a year in which the team went winless with an 0-14 record. But the Mustangs, who have now made the playoffs in each of the last three seasons, enjoyed their best campaign in recent memory in 2009 and proved that they’re now a top-calibre team in the OUA that will continue to challenge the perennial powerhouse Guelph Gryphons and Varsity Blues in the coming years.
Fifth-year senior Michelle Weber (Ilderton, Ont.), who was a member of that 0-14 team in 2005, led the way offensively for the Mustangs this year, netting a team-high 11 goals in the regular season, which tied her for second-most in the league and helped earn the kinesiology major a fourth straight OUA first-team all-star selection. Other top Western goal scorers in the regular season were Elsbeth Tate (Richmond, BC) and Madeleine Wootton (Plattsville, Ont.) with five goals apiece, and Louise Radford (Guelph, Ont.) with four.
An 8-4-2 finish in the regular season gave the Mustangs the No. 4 seed entering the playoffs, where they opened with a convincing 6-0 win over the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) in their OUA Quarter-Final match before losing a heartbreaker to Toronto in the semifinals despite a phenomenal effort from goaltender Gillian Cummings (Toronto, Ont.).
OUA Regular Season Record:
8-4-2 (fourth place heading into postseason)
OUA Playoff Record:
2-1 (2009 OUA Bronze Medalists)
Beat York Lions 3-2 in OUA bronze-medal game
OUA Awards:
Gail Wilson Award (most outstanding contribution to field hockey): Petra Kovacs (Strathroy, Ont.)
First-Team All-Stars: Michelle Weber (Ilderton, Ont.)
Second-Team All-Stars: Sarah Cobourn (Mississauga, Ont.), Kirsten Jewell (Toronto, Ont.) and Louise Radford (Guelph, Ont.)
CIS Awards:
Second-team All-Canadian: Michelle Weber (fourth straight All-Canadian nomination)
