Coming off a strong season with a 10-4-1 record, the women’s lacrosse tream headed to London to face off against the top teams in the league. The Gaels brought home a bronze medal, beating the University of Toronto Blues 12-8 in the OUA Championship last weekend
The Gaels traveled to the Championships looking to redeem themselves from their fourth place finish in the last year’s final, a loss that came at the hands of the Varsity Blues. In their quarterfinal game, the Gaels dominated the McMaster “Throughout the weekend, we really just played our game,” said Lisa McLaughlin, who scored three points on the weekend..
“I think all season we’ve been working on getting to that point where you don’t let the other team affect your game in anyway. I think we did exactly what we wanted to in our game.”
The Gaels benefited from seven different goal scorers. Marsha Cryderman was the leading scorer in the game with four while Gwynn Ross and McLaughlin each had three. Queen’s dominated defensively, holding the Marauders to only seven shots on net.
The Gaels advanced to the semifinals and faced the Western Mustangs. The Gaels had not been able to beat the Mustangs in the regular season, tying their first and losing their second game. The Gaels kept the game close until the half when they were down by only one goal but they were unable to get past Western’s defence eventually losing the game 10-6. The Gaels hustled throughout the game, outshooting the Mustangs 21-17.
McLaughlin said they looked to change their play against Western after their regular season record against them.
“When we were playing Western, they’re a very fast team,” she said. “It’s hard for anyone in the league to keep up with them. We adjusted our style a bit more to be able to handle that better.”
After their loss, the Gaels played the University of Toronto in the bronze medal game. After falling behind by two goals early in the game, the Gaels stormed back with a great effort by attack Jacqueline Byers who had six goals in the 12-8 win.
McLaughlin said they went into the game with confidence, having beaten Toronto in all their matchups during the regular season but remained careful not to underestimate them.
“We knew the day before they almost beat Laurier who ended up winning the whole thing,” she said. “We had to be very careful because we knew they would come out very strong.”
With the graduation of Lisa McLaughlin, Kelsey Eriksen, Kelsey Gray and Kalyn Bolland, McLaughlin said the team’s season has provided great experience that will carry over to next year.
“We have a lot of our team coming back next year, everyone grew a lot this season individually and on our team as a whole,” she said. “I think there’s a lot of positives to take away from it. I think the team will be even stronger next year when they all come back again.”
Midfielder Gwyn Ross and defence Kalyn Bolland earned OUA All-Star selections.
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