The Western Mustangs women's field hockey team played in the OUA bronze medal match today against local rivals Waterloo Warriors and came out on top 2-0. With the win the Mustangs advance to the national championship for the first time in the history of the program. The final season tournament takes place next weekend at the University of Toronto.
The Mustangs accomplished today's shutout win over the home team Warriors decisively and maintained ball possession for the majority of the game.
In the opening minutes, however, Waterloo looked poised to take the early lead as Courtney Bisch (Wellesley, Ont.) had a point blank chance but Western keeper Bethan Blackburn (Elora, Ont.) turned the chance aside.
Western then turned up their offence with several quality chances on the Waterloo net but Hilary Neeb (Wellesley, Ont.) continued her strong OUA championship play keeping the score locked at 0’s.
Following a scoreless opening half, the Mustangs took control of the play owning the offensive zone and putting all sorts of pressure on the Warrior backfield.
The Warriors seemed content to stand strong defensively with Need making timely saves but the Mustangs would simply wear the black and gold down taking a 1-0 lead off the stick of Jessica Crawford (Oakville, Ont.) at the 57th minute.
Western added to their lead two minutes later as OUA all-star Katelyn Roganowicz (Burlington, Ont.) took advantage of a perfectly setup corner, firing it home into the empty net. The play was setup by forward Lauren Mackenzie (Beturlington, Ont.) to give her Mustangs the 2-0 victory.
Players of the game
Western: Jessica Crawford
Waterloo: Katie Farrugia
OUA Gold Medal
Toronto 5, Guelph 2
The Toronto Varsity Blues captured OUA gold as five different Blues found the net to clinch the championship banner with a 5-2 win over the Guelph Gryphons on Sunday at Warrior Field in Waterloo.
Both teams will advance to the CIS Championship hosted by Toronto from Thursday, November 1 to Sunday, November 4.
The championship match got off to a thrilling start with the Blues taking the early 1-0 lead in the third minute as Lauren Mansfield (North Vancouver, BC) let a blistering shot go from 15 feet out that eluded Guelph goalie Kaye McLagan (Mitchell, Ont.)
The Gryphons wasted little time responding as Allison Chute (Greenfield Park, Que.) would tip one in past Kathryn Williams (Burlington, Ont.) on the ensuing draw to even the score. The play was setup beautifully by forward Candice Hawksworth (Oakville, Ont.).
With the score even at one, the Blues took over midway through the second half with four goals in the span of 13 minutes to cruise to the victory.
Amanda Woodcroft (Waterloo, Ont.) opened the flood gates off of a short corner setup by Tegan Stairs (Kitchener, Ont.). The Blues would extend their lead to 3-1 as Rachel Fackoury (Maryhill, Ont.) finished off a perfect pass by Kelley Lusk (North Vancouver, B.C.).
Toronto would continue their onslaught as Tegan Stairs would get in on the action following a tic-tac-toe play with her sister Emma (Kitchener, Ont.) to make it 4-1 in favour of the Blues.
The Blues would add one more in the 66th minute by Alexandra Evanyshyn (Burlington, Ont.) before OUA player of the year Brittany Seidler (Oliver, B.C.) added her second of the tournament for Guelph, making it a 5-2 final in favour of the Blues.
Players of the game
Toronto: Henriette Mansell
Guelph: Erin Houle
