Queen’s Lacrosse has added another medal to their catalogue.
The Women’s Lacrosse team won the bronze medal at the OUA championships, which took place from Oct. 16-18 in Peterborough. The Gaels defeated the Guelph Gryphons by a score 13-12 in overtime to claim third place.
To learn more about the team’s experience in Peterborough, The Journal interviewed Head Coach of the women’s team and Technical Director of Lacrosse at Queen’s, Mike Watson.
The team finished second place in the OUA standings during the regular season with a 7-2 record. This put them in an “advantageous position,” according to Watson, as they got to play against the seventh seeded McMaster Marauders on Oct. 16, who they proceeded to pummel by a score of 25-0.
Queen’s then faced off against the Laurier Golden Hawks the following day, a team who they beat in the regular season by a score of 11-10 on Sept. 20. The team ultimately had a hard time converting their chances, and the Golden Hawks pulled away late for a 11-7 win.
“Just didn’t capitalize on our chances in moments where we really needed to capitalize,” Watson said on the loss against Laurier.
That put the Gaels in the bronze medal game against the Guelph Gryphons, who they also beat during the regular season by a score of 12-9 on Sept. 19.
Queen’s came out against Guelph “a little bit flat” said Watson, as they went down into an early 5-1 deficit against the Gryphons. However, the team didn’t lie down and were able to battle back to eventually tie the game at 8-8 heading into the last quarter.
The fourth quarter started disastrously for the Gaels, conceding four straight goals putting the score at 12-8 with only four minutes to go in the game.
Watson recalled thinking “I don’t know if we have enough time to come back.”
Then, a miracle unfolded.
The Gaels proceeded to a mount a comeback, headlined by Laurieve Swanson, ArtSci’ 30, who scored three consecutive goals to pull Queen’s within one. With less than a minute to go, Brooke Rutledge, HealthSci ’27, scored to tie the game and force overtime.
Swanson then proceeded to score the game winner in overtime, giving the Gaels a 13-12 win over the Gryphons and the bronze medal. Swanson also earned the player of the game award for her performance.
“To their credit, the girls did not quit and were resilient,” Waston said.
Along with Rutledge, the head coach also gave credit to the team’s veteran leadership Abigayle Tronstad, Nurs ’27, Summer Thomas, Nurs ’27, and Leah Quinn, ArtSci ’27, for helping keep the team calm during the regular season and this past weekend.
“We got so many contributions from so many players in that game [against Guelph][…]. There was never any quit, there was never any rolling over, and it definitely starts with our leadership group,” he said.
The OUA bronze medal is the women’s lacrosse first since 2017, as the team has either won gold or silver every year, including 3 championships, during this dominant stretch. Despite that, Watson is still impressed by his team medaling given the fact that the group is comprised of many new players this season.
“This was probably one of the most exciting OUA weekends, knowing we were kind of in a transitioning year and having so many young players coming into the team, and still seeing success in that bronze medal game,’ he said.
The players will now have some time off to train over the offseason and get ready for next season. According to Watson, most of the training happens during the summer in camps run by coaches due to the lack of indoor training facilities at Queen’s. The players are also encouraged to play in leagues over the summer in preparation for the upcoming season.
Tags
OUA championship, Women's lacrosse
All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s) in Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be contacted, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to eic@queensjournal.ca.