The No. 2 seed in the OUA University of Toronto Varsity Blues field hockey team punched their ticket to the OUA gold medal game with a 2-0 win over the No. 3 seed Waterloo Warriors in the OUA semifinal on Saturday (Oct. 24) afternoon at Alumni Field in Toronto.
Now, the Blues will take on the host York Lions with OUA gold on the fine for the second consecutive season. That game will be played at Alumni Field in Toronto with a scheduled start time of 1 p.m.
A back-and-forth clash between two of the top teams in the OUA, Toronto and Waterloo left it all on the field for 60 minutes. Second-year Blues goalkeeper Mary Yang and Waterloo's Grace Miller were strong between the pipes, trading saves as the teams battled for an icebreaker.
The Blue and White flipped the script in the match with two goals in the 44
th minute. Getting the scoring started for U of T was fourth-year forward Ava Airnes. The goal marked three goals in the last four games for the Aberdeen, Scotland native dating back to U of T's regular season contest versus Western on Oct. 17. 32 seconds later, U of T would add an insurance marker with a goal from first-year midfielder Imke Arndt, marking the first career postseason goal for the kinesiology student.
In the fourth quarter, Toronto controlled possession and fended off the Warriors attack. Led by their veteran defenders, OUA player of the year Maggie Mullins and OUA all-star Kirsten D'Silva, U of T's 2-0 held strong as they punched their ticket to the gold medal match.
Yang finished the game with three saves to earn the clean sheet.
Schedule:Â
Semi-Final #1: Saturday, Oct. 24 – York 2 vs. Guelph 0 (OT)
Semi-Final #2: Saturday, Oct. 24 – Toronto 2 vs. Waterloo 0Â
Bronze Medal Game: Sunday, Oct. 25 – Guelph vs. Waterloo (11:00 am)
Gold Medal Game: Sunday, Oct. 25 – York vs. Toronto (1:00 pm)
