With a convincing win against a Perth club team Sunday afternoon, the Queen’s women’s hockey team found their legs after a long summer off. The team, which has a noticeably different look from last season, had barely been acquainted before donning the tricolour to begin the exhibition portion of their season.

Queen’s women’s field hockey team got off to an excellent start at the University of Toronto Invitational tournament over the weekend. In its first test of the season, the women’s team went undefeated in a tournament that pitted it against competitive squads from Toronto, Carleton and Waterloo.

The Queen’s Golden Gaels men’s and women’s soccer teams began their respective seasons solidly last weekend. Each team took home four points from their Southwestern Ontario road trip to Western and Windsor.
The women’s soccer team began the weekend on Saturday with a 1-1 draw against the Western Mustangs. The two teams met in last year’s OUA final, which Western won.

For years, rower Morgan Jarvis’ goal was to sit in the stroke seat for the senior national team’s quad crew.
This summer, Jarvis, Art Sci ’05, found himself not only in that seat, but leading the crew to a bronze medal at the World Rowing Championships in Gifu, Japan.

The Queen’s baseball team, last year’s Canadian Intercollegiate Baseball Association champions, opened their season by playing .500 ball over four weekend games.
The Gaels won the first game and lost the second in each of two doubleheaders against their conference rivals, facing Durham College in Oshawa on Saturday and York University at home on Sunday.

The Golden Gaels football team honoured a fallen teammate on Saturday by decisively winning a game in his name. The Gaels began their contest against the York Lions on a somber note, after a ceremony dedicated the game to teammate Justin Schwieg, who was killed last March in an unprovoked attack at A.J.’s Hangar.

The Athletic Information Night, which allows students from all disciplines and years a chance to sign up for intramural teams, takes place Tuesday, Sept. 13 from 5-7 p.m. in Bartlett Gym in the Physical Education Centre (PEC).

During the first weeks of September, it’s wonderful to be a Queen’s student. The streets of the Ghetto are littered with upper-year students eagerly returning to their sub-standard shacks.
Frisbees soar once again, rugged couches reappear on rotting porches, and friends torn apart by the insurmountable separation of summer rekindle their bonds in drunken reunions—“You’re the best, dude. No, seriously I love you.” In the background familiar war songs rise to a rousing crescendo, as unsure frosh begin to feel a part of the famous Queen’s spirit.

After a disappointing semi-final loss to Western in last year’s OUA playoffs, the Queen’s men’s rugby team is set to rebound with a strong 2005-2006 season. The team capped off a four-day training camp by winning both divisions in the inaugural Dartmouth Invitational tournament in New Hampshire this past weekend.

Weeks before most Queen’s students start thinking about going back to the hustle and bustle of Kingston, more than one hundred football players varying in talent and size participate in Queen’s football training camp.

The Gaels football squad wasn’t pleased to break a five-year old team record in their Labour Day season opener against the defending OUA champion Laurier Golden Hawks. The team was shut out for the first time since the 2000 season, falling 45-0.

During Homecoming weekend the women’s lacrosse team gave Gael fans a reason to celebrate.
The women opened their season on the road in Montreal, where they faced opponents Brock, Toronto, and McGill in a series of regular season games—a format designed to cut travel costs for OUA teams.
The Gaels began their reign of terror on Saturday morning by picking apart the McGill Redmen 11-6 on their home field. Taking the momentum with them, the Gaels smothered the Brock Badgers 11-4 on Sunday morning, and then downed the U of T Varsity Blues 9-6 later that afternoon.

This weekend, Braden Novakowski will temporarily trade in the tricolour for the red and white maple leaf.
He will be representing Canada at the Pan Am Junior Athletics Championships in Windsor. It will be his fourth time on the start line in international competition—and his second in track and field—but the prospect still excites him.

The new school year offers up new friends, new classes and a new look for Golden Gaels teams. The summer months—full of coaching changes, recruiting efforts, training programs and competitions in Canada and around the world—have produced several teams to watch this year.

If there exists a battle of the sexes, then the women have won this round: Chris Galbraith, an assistant coach with the Gaels’ men’s volleyball team for the past three years, will be stepping up to take the reins of the women’s team next season.
On June 7, Queen’s Athletics announced they had selected Galbraith to fill the shoes of departing women’s head coach Jamie Mastorakos, who held the post for the last four years.