This past weekend was one of the busiest in the history of Ontario University Athletics (OUA) sports. A great number of teams and players were involved in playoff and championship contests, while some teams were continuing their regular season schedule.
U of T hosted the provincial cross-country championships on Saturday. The women’s team took the bronze in their event, while the men’s team was able to come away with a sixth-place finish. The Guelph Gryphons and Windsor Lancers were the top two teams, respectively.
Julia Kirby had the best time for U of T in the women’s 5km event, finishing with a time of 18:53. Kristina Rody of Guelph, who ran the course with a time of 17:32, posted the best time in the race.
Jose Carvalho was the best Blue on the men’s side; he ran the 10km course in 33:13. On the other hand, Cristiano Mauricio of Windsor topped the talented field with a time of 31:01, more than two minutes faster than Carvalho.
The men’s soccer team was able to come away with a 3-1 victory over the McMaster Marauders in Sunday’s OUA home quarter-final match. The Blues will next take part in a semi-final game on November 6, and are currently ranked ninth in the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) standings.
The women’s team is also headed to the semi-finals after they defeated McMaster at home on Friday and Guelph on the road on Sunday. The teams played 90 minutes of scoreless soccer before the Blues outscored Guelph 4-2 in penalty kicks in the latter match.
Oriana Morra and Lauren Karst provided the team with their two goals in a 2-0 victory over the Marauders in Friday’s game. Andrea Tristao shut out McMaster with a strong performance in goal.
Meanwhile, London was the site of two playoff games on the last days of October. Western hosted the OUA championship match in women’s rugby between U of T and Western and also was home to the women’s field hockey semi-final between the Mustangs and Blues.
Each school came away with a win on the weekend. The Mustangs are now women’s rugby champions after they defeated the Blues 28-7. U of T got redemption, though, when they ousted Western in the field hockey semi-final. The score in that contest was 2-1 and was an incredible defensive struggle.
A plethora of regular season games were played on the weekend, in addition to the flurry of playoff matches, which will undoubtedly have playoff implications in the future. Hockey, lacrosse, water polo, badminton, and volleyball players were all busy trying to secure victories for U of T.
Both of the University’s hockey teams were able to trounce their opponents, as the women beat York in a 7-1 blowout and the men edged past Brock 3-1. The former is now undefeated at 2-0-1 on the year and the latter now boasts a 3-1-0 record.
Jaqueline Cherevaty and Mike Nason both scored twice in their teams’ victories. Nason also contributed an assist; he was in on all three of his teams scoring plays.
The men’s lacrosse team squeaked by Carleton with a 9-8 regular season win, which gives them a 4-4-0 record on the season. In contrast, the women’s team lost to Brock in the OUA semi-final on Saturday, but made up for it Sunday by beating McMaster in the bronze medal game by a score of 6-4.
Other action saw the men’s water polo team win twice, the women’s water polo team lose twice, the women’s volleyball team win twice, and the men’s volleyball team split a pair of games. The women’s volleyball team was ranked sixth in the CIS standings as of October 28, and is a perfect 4-0 on the season so far.
