LONDON, Ont. - Brienne Stairs added to her impressive goal total this season, scoring two goals in a 2-0 shutout over the Western Mustangs on Oct. 19 at TD Waterhouse Stadium.
Dorothy Marcy earned the shutout in the Guelph net, making a couple of key saves late in the game.
Guelph opened the scoring 19 minutes into the game when Stairs deflected a shot into the top corner past Western goalie Gilliam Cummings.
About 10 minutes later, Western's Elsbeth Tate (Richmond, B.C.) had a chance to tie the game but her one-timer from 10 feet out went wide and may have been deflected.
Late in the opening half, Cummings made a big save on a wide open Guelph scoring chance to keep the score at 1-0 for Guelph.
Stairs added an insurance goal, her 28th of the season, early in the second half, punching a shot from a bad angle past Cummings who was helpless.
The Mustangs mounted pressure late but could not capitalize.
Marcy kicked out her leg pad on an outside shot set up on a penalty stroke from Western to preserve the shutout. Louise Radford (Guelph, Ont.) redirected the ensuing corner, but the ball skipped wide of the net.
Both teams enjoyed periods of long possession but the Guelph defence proved to be the difference, holding the Western offence to the outside throughout.
Western head coach Jeff Pacheco said he was pleased with the game, but frustrated with the lack of finishing touch.
"Guelph is a strong team," Pacheco said. "We contained them but they scored on the few scoring chances they had."
"We had a few small windows to score and could not convert."
He said he was especially happy with the play of sophomore sweeper Kirsten Jewell (Toronto).
"Kirsten was great for us tonight," he said. "She made a lot of awesome tackles, had great distribution and played well overall."
Western sits in fourth place in the OUA and wants to move into second or third place prior to the OUA Championships being hosted by Western Oct. 30-Nov. 1 at TD Waterhouse Stadium.
The Mustangs (6-3-2, 4th OUA) are three points behind third-place Waterloo (7-3-2) and four points out of second place. They next play McGill on Oct. 24 in Waterloo, and Queen's and second-place Toronto on Oct. 25 in Mississauga, Ont. Pacheco said the team is particularly focussed on Toronto.
"We have the chance to knock off the University of Toronto and we want to get nine points (three wins) in three games," he said. "We tied them 2-2 last time we played. Our team is athletic and has so much speed that everyone has to pay attention to that."
Pacheco said the team is also wary of the ability of either McGill (2-6-3, 6th place) or Queen's (2-9-2, 7th place) - or both - to play spoiler. Both squads were previously eliminated from the playoffs.
"Both Queen's and McGill are capable of stealing points from us," he said. "All the points for us at this stage are very important."
The top two teams in the OUA receive byes to the semifinals on Oct. 31, while the third place team hosts the Atlantic Canada representative and the fourth and fith place teams face each other in OUA quarter-final games on Oct. 30.
Semifinal winners play for the OUA Championship and semifinal losers play for OUA bronze on Nov. 1.
| Field Hockey Standings |
| |
GP |
W |
L |
T |
GF |
GA |
PTS |
| Guelph |
13 |
11 |
0 |
2 |
61 |
10 |
35 |
| Toronto |
11 |
7 |
1 |
3 |
35 |
10 |
24 |
| Waterloo |
12 |
7 |
3 |
2 |
21 |
23 |
23 |
| Western |
11 |
6 |
3 |
2 |
24 |
10 |
20 |
| York |
13 |
6 |
5 |
2 |
17 |
16 |
20 |
| McGill |
11 |
2 |
6 |
3 |
14 |
22 |
9 |
| Queen's |
13 |
2 |
9 |
2 |
10 |
42 |
8 |
| Carleton |
14 |
0 |
14 |
0 |
7 |
56 |
0 |
