The University of Toronto Varsity Blues women's lacrosse team will look to build off last year's bronze-medal finish as they travel to Peterborough, Ont., for the 2018 OUA Championship this weekend (Oct. 19-21).

The Blues capped off the season as one of the hottest teams in the OUA, winning five of their last six games. Toronto finished third in the OUA East division with an 8-4-1 record in Jim Calder's first year as head coach. The Blues will take on the Western Mustangs, who placed second in the West, in quarter-final action on Friday at 2:30 p.m.

Toronto sits fourth in the province in goals scored, due in large part to a pair of key contributors. Brynne Yarranton, who joined the Blues in 2018 after two seasons at Boston University and two seasons at the University of Vermont, has been dominant, registering 46 goals in 13 games.

Second-year attack/midfielder Heather McDougall has hit her stride and become more and more dominant as the season progressed. She ended the campaign with 29 goals, but more importantly picked up 18 points (seven goals, 11 assists) in the final three contests, earning OUA peak performer honours in the process.

The Varsity Blues have shown they can go toe-to-toe with the top teams in the OUA. They recently beat Western 9-8 and tied Trent 10-10 earlier in the season.

The squad is hitting their stride at the right time, scoring an average of over 13 goals and allowing just under seven goals per game in the final four games of the regular season. Toronto will continue to rely on veteran defenders Meghan Hooper and Marie Mutware, as well as Gina Yang and Caitlin Downs, to keep the opposition at bay. That defensive corps, along with starting goalie Sierra Watkins, will be relied on to backstop the Blues this weekend.

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