This weekend boasts more playoff action for anyone who wasn’t satisfied by the overload of activity experienced just seven days ago.
The men’s lacrosse team will travel to Bishop’s University in Quebec to compete in the Ontario Championship from Friday to Sunday. This event will cap off a season that has seen the team go 4-4, and one in which the team got stronger as the year went on. Coach Matt Thomas got used to his squad after a couple games, and the team learned to follow the system that their coach put in place.
The Brock Badgers are the favourite to retain the sport’s Baggataway Cup, as they are defending champions and have won the trophy all but five times in its 19-year history.
The Blues will have to beat Guelph in a preliminary match on Friday to qualify for a semi-final date with Bishop’s on Saturday. Bishop’s and Brock won their divisions and as a result each gets a bye into the semi-finals.
U of T’s women’s rugby team will travel even farther this weekend. They will be playing in Halifax, Nova Scotia from Friday to Sunday in an attempt to capture the national rugby crown. The team will be in tough competition against the likes of the University of Alberta Pandas, who have won an incredible five straight titles.
The ladies are ranked sixth in the country after a defeat by Western in last weekend’s OUA championship. They finished second in the Sheils division behind Western.
Heather Moyse, a fifth-year fullback for the Blues, is worth keeping an eye on. She led the team in scoring with 11 tries over the course of the season and was named an OUA all-star. Shannon Smith and Leigh Nevermann were also named to the all-star team.
The other schools playing for the championship are Western, the University of Alberta, St. Francis Xavier, McGill, and the University of PEI.
The undefeated women’s field hockey team will head the other direction, west, to Alberta for the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) Championships on Thursday. The final game will be played Sunday afternoon and the Blues, who are ranked third in the country, have an excellent shot at capturing the title.
The University of British Columbia (UBC) Thunderbirds are coming into this tournament as the defending champions and are the top-ranked team in the nation. The University of Victoria and the Blues follow them.
U of T has a total of five girls on the field hockey all-star teams this year. Robin Leslie, Alex Chacinski and Julia Morton are on the first team, while Cailie O’Hara and Sarah Lipton represent the Blues on the second team.
Finally, both soccer teams will see OUA semi-final action on Saturday. The men play Carleton in Ottawa and the women face Queen’s in Kingston.
Last weekend, the men’s team beat McMaster in the quarterfinal, which earned them the right to face Carleton. Likewise, the women’s team defeated Guelph to make it to the semi-finals. Both teams will play in championship games on Sunday if they are victorious on Saturday.
Be sure to catch these home games on campus this weekend: badminton at 10 am on Saturday, men’s hockey against Ottawa at 7:30 p.m.on Saturday and women’s hockey against Brock at 7:30 p.m. on Sunday.
