The Varsity Blues women's water polo team began its final weekend of games with a split of games at the Terrier Invite hosted by St. Francis College Brooklyn.
 
The Blues began early in the morning against the host Terriers and found themselves in a quick 1-0 hole before tying things up on the power play.  The teams again traded goals and headed into the second quarter tied 2-2.
 
The Blues attack began to flounder and the Terriers were able to push ahead 5-4 at the half.  
 
The Terriers then edged ahead for the first time by two goals and led 7-5 heading into the final period.  The Blues closed to within one early in the quarter but St. Francis converted its second penalty shot with three minutes to go to lead 8-6.  But the Blues pushed hard and eventually levelled things at 8-8 and even had the last attack chance to win.
 
In the penalty shootout, standout goaltender senior co-ccaptain Rachael Jaffe (Irvine, California) stopped two of the five Terrier penalties while sophomore Sara Sutherland (Regina) scored cross-cage crossbar down with the Blues' final shot to seal the victory.
 
Sutherland led all scorers in regulation time with a hat trick.  Junior assistant captain Caitlyn Tiedje (Okotoks, Alberta) and sophomore Allie Vas (Yorba Lina, California) notched a pair each while senior co-captain Kassie Fraser (Vancouver) added a a single.
 
The Blues were back in the pool less than two hours later to face off against the extremely powerful club team New York Athletic Club (NYAC).
 
Toronto withstood a physical first half of play and only trailed 3-2.  But the lack of rest, coupled with the hard physical first half and the fact the NYAC had three full lines on the bench led to a disastrous third quarter in which the Blues were whitewashed 6-0.  
 
The Blues then were able to play a 3-3 final period before eventually falling 12-6.
 
Sophomores Sarah Wentling (Mohnton, Pennsylvania) and Vas paced the attack with two goals each.  A pair of freshmen, Kaitlyn Palmer (Ottawa) and Lauren Dundee (Perth, Scotland) added the other markers.  The fact that all the Blues' goals came from first and second year players bodes well for next year.
 
The Blues will close out the Terrier Invite and their season with a rematch against the hosts.