The University of Toronto Varsity Blues men's water polo team successfully defended their OUA championship title, defeating the host Carleton Ravens 5-3 in the gold-medal match on Sunday, November 26 in Ottawa. 
 
It marks the first time the Blues have won consecutive provincial titles since claiming three in a row from 2008-10. U of T wins their 11th OUA title in the past 16 years and 32nd overall in program history.
 
Toronto advanced to Sunday's final following a lopsided 17-2 victory over the Western Mustangs in semi-final action on Saturday.

Sukhmun Hare, Milos Radojcic and Euan Scofield were all named OUA all-stars. 
 
Amped up by a large home crowd, the Ravens got on the board early in the opening quarter and carried the 1-0 advantage into the second period.

Again, spurred on by the vocal home crowd, the Ravens doubled the lead on an outside shot.  But this time the Blues responded on the very next attack to close to within one.

The goal seemed to inject a surge of energy into the Blues players who proceeded to add three more goals to close out a 4-0 run giving Toronto a 4-2 halftime lead.

The teams struggled to mount dangerous attacks until the Ravens closed to within one near the end of the third quarter.  However, the Blues again responded on the next attack scoring on the power play to restore the two-goal advantage heading into the final frame.

Standout goalie Emirhan Ozdemir  (Istanbul, Turkey) saved his best work for the fourth quarter, turning aside everything the Carleton shooters threw his way.

The game, physical throughout, accelerated in intensity as time wore on but neither team could find the back of the net.

Hare  (Vancouver) paced the Blues attack with a pair of blistering outside shots.  Stefan Mitic  (Toronto) on the counterattack,  Abdelrahman Said (Cairo, Egypt) on the power play and Marko Avdalovic  (Toronto) in the center forward slot each added singles.

 "We came here, did what we prepared for – the exact same thing we've been doing the entire season – and it worked for us, so I'm very happy about that," said Varsity Blues head coach Tuna Tali.
 
Toronto will look to push their championship streak to three next season. "You've got to keep working hard and do what we do best," said Tali. "We need to work harder and harder every year to keep it going like this."
 
MAJOR AWARDS:
Most Valuable Player – Dusan Boskovic – Carleton Ravens
Most Valuable Goalie – Trevor Robinson – Queen's Gaels
Coach of the Year – Zoltan Csepregi – Carleton Ravens
 
ALL-STARS:
Victor Brancus – Western Mustangs
Alex Cox-Twardowski – Queen's Gaels
Julien Allard – Carleton Ravens
Yorek Hurrelmann – Carleton Ravens
Sukhmun Hare – Toronto Varsity Blues
Milos Radojcic – Toronto Varsity Blues
Euan Scofield – Toronto Varsity Blues

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