UW Warriors to defend their OUA championship from Toronto Varsity Blues today
| March 15, 2025
After an impressive 2024-2025 season, the women’s hockey team is set to defend their OUA championship today, March 15, at 4 p.m. on home ice. Interestingly, this McCaw cup match is identical to last season, as the Warriors are taking on the University of Toronto Varsity Blues.
With this being quite the rivalry, it’s worth looking into both teams’ paths to earning an opportunity to compete for OUA supremacy. Starting with the Warriors, they finished the regular season 18-8, securing second place in the OUA West, the Warriors had quite the favourable road to the McCaw Cup. Getting the first round by and an automatic bid to the quarter finals, the Warriors took care of business against cross-town rivals Laurier Golden Hawks, sweeping them two games to none in a best two out of three series.
Moving onto the semis, the Warriors’ path got a little more challenging as they had to take on the first seed from the OUA East, the University of Nipissing Lakers. Regardless of seeding, the Warriors took care of business again in impressive fashion, sweeping the Lakers two games to none, and earning themselves a spot in the OUA championship.
Looking into the Varsity Blues, they had a very similar road to the championships as the Warriors. Finishing 17-9 earning themselves the second seed in the OUA East, earning themselves a first-round bye and an automatic bid to the quarter finals. The Varsity Blues took care of business, sweeping the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees two games to none. Moving onto the semis, the Varsity Blues were slated to take on the top ranked team in the OUA, the University of Guelph Gryphons. Similar to the quarter finals, the Varsity Blues took care of business, knocking off the Gryphons two games to none, earning themselves an opportunity to compete in the OUA finals.
The Warriors and Varsity Blues matched up on two separate occasions this past season, with each team winning one. Back on Oct. 10, the Blues travelled to CIF and fell to the Warriors 2-1. Gracey Smith was the star of this game, as she put away both goals for the Warriors. Fast forward to the end of November, the Warriors travelled down to Toronto to take on the Varsity Blues, and got knocked off 2-1 in overtime. If this third match-up between the Warriors and the Varsity Blues is anything like the past two, spectators are in for quite the show.
Well Warriors, we have an OUA championship taking place on our own campus. Although the game itself has been sold out, students are invited to gather in CIF Gym 3 for a watch party.
