The Varsity Blues women's water polo team closed out the Montreal Invitational with a pair of victories over DDO and UQAM on Sunday.
 
The Blues topped DDO 7-6, before defeating UQAM 6-3 to end the tournament with a 3-1 record.
 
Early in the morning, the Blues squared off against the powerful DDO club.  After grabbing an early 1-0 lead, the Blues attack faltered and DDO ran off three unanswered goals to go up 3-1 at the end of the opening quarter.
 
The Blues defence then tightened up, shutting out DDO in the second frame, which allowed the offence to pull the game into a tie heading into the second half.
 
DDO then swung back into gear for two quick goals to start the third quarter but the Blues levelled things at 5-5 with one quarter to play.
 
The Blues pushed the tally to four unanswered goals to grab a 7-5 advantage by mid-quarter and hung on to win the exciting match 7-6.
 
Seven different Blues got on the score sheet:  Co-captain senior Megan MacCormac (Ottawa), assistant captain junior Kassie Fraser (Vancouver) and freshmen Deena Charles (Langley, B.C.), Katie Smith (Chestermere, Alberta), Sarah Wentling (Mohnton, Pennsylvania), Emma Brezoczky (Los Gatos, California) and Sara Sutherland (Regina).
 
After only an hour and a half's rest, the Blues were back into the water to play an exhibition match against a team based out of the Universite de Quebec a Montreal (UQAM), but bolstered by players from Universite de Montreal and the CAMO city club.
 
The Blues were the better team in terms of swimming shape and used that advantage to build a 2-0 first-quarter lead, despite missing several scoring opportunities. 
 
The team matched that score in the next period to lead 4-0 at the half as goalie Rachael Jaffe (Irvine, California) continued to shut the door on the UQAM shooters.
 
Both squads exchanged single goals in the third quarter leaving the Blues up by four entering the final period.  UQAM jumped on a sleepy Blues unit to pull to within two goals but the Blues offence woke up in the last minute to score a goal and ice a 6-3 victory.
 
Brezocky led all scorers with a hat trick while juniors Emily Kelvin-Davies  (Maple Ridge, B.C.) and Caitlyn Tiedje (Okotoks, Alberta) plus Wentling chipped in with singles.
 
Next up for the Blues in two weeks is a trip to Chicago for the Midwest College Showcase.   There, the Blues will encounter perennial NCAA top 20 school Indiana Hoosiers along with the University of Florida Gators, Lindenwood University Lions and the Carthage College Lady Reds. Blues head coach George Gross, Jr. will join Indiana head coach Ryan Castle in running a high school players clinic on the Saturday.
 
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