The Varsity Blues women's water polo team travelled to Kingston on Saturday, November 2 to play the first two games of a four-game set at Queen's University.
 
The initial match pitted the No. 1 ranked Blues against the second-ranked and host Gaels. 
 
Toronto was slow to match the intensity that Queen's brought to the game but still managed to lead 2-1 after the opening quarter of play. In the second period, the Blues hard press defence led to a couple of counterattack goals that extended the lead to 4-1 at half time.
 
The Blues finally got on track in the third quarter, scoring four unanswered goals to take a 8-1 lead entering the final frame. The final quarter went 3-1 in Toronto's favour leading to a 11-2 victory. 
 
Rookie Lauren Dundee (Perth, Scotland) led all scorers with four goals. Allie Vas (Yorba Linda, California) scored twice, while co-captain Kassie Fraser (Vancouver), sophomores Sarah Wentling (Mohnton, Pennsylvania), Deena Charles (Langley, B.C.) and Sara Sutherland (Regina) along with freshman Kaitlyn Palmer (Ottawa) added singles.
 
Senior co-captain Rachael Jaffe (Irvine, California) had a strong game in goal, turning aside shot after shot.
 
After a few hours to rest, the Blues were back in the pool to face the No. 3 ranked Carleton Ravens. 
 
The Blues wasted no time, turning their suffocating press defence into five unanswered counterattack goals and a 5-0 first quarter lead. 
 
The Blues offence sputtered in the next two quarters each of which Toronto won 2-1.  In the final quarter, the Blues duplicated the strong opening quarter with another 5-0 run leading to the eventual 14-2 win.
 
Vas paced the Blues attack with four goals, while Dundee added a hat trick.  Wentling and Sutherland each potted a pair of goals while juniors Caitlyn Tiedje (Calgary) and Masa Stojanovic (Toronto) along with sophomore Emily Grossman (Santa Clara, California) contributed single tallies.
 
Jaffe played the opening quarter shutout in goal and was then followed by sophomore Amber Masse's (San Jose, California) two one-goal quarters and finally by senior Maddie Hertz (Miami, Florida) with the fourth quarter shutout.
 
UP NEXT: The Blues will face off against McGill and Ottawa tomorrow (Nov. 3) to conclude the regular season schedule.

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