Women's Lacrosse Team Takes Home Gold after Undefeated Season
Excalibur win their first OUA banner in women’s team sports
Just four years after the women’s lacrosse program began at Trent University, the team has taken gold. After going undefeated in the regular season, the team met the five-time defending champion, Western Mustangs, in the Ontario University Finals (OUA) hosted by McMaster University yesterday.
“Western has won the championship five years in a row before this, so we knew we would have to give it everything we had to be successful today,” said Tori Wasson, head coach of the team. “We had a game plan and we knew that if we played our game, absorbing pressure and using our quick transition out of defense to move into attack, we could achieve what we have today, we gave it our all.”
After falling behind early in the game, the team rallied in the second half to take the match 12-11. The Excalibur relied on their OUA first team all-stars, Leah Ogilvie, a fourth-year Anthropology and Sociology students, and Leah Michel, a first-year Psychology student, to provide a combined eight goals in powering the offense. There was nail-biting action as the Mustangs cut the Excalibur lead to one with only a minute left to play, but the stellar work of Trent’s goalkeeper and reigning OUA defensive player of the year, Denise Miller, a fourth-year Indigenous Studies student, paired with a heightened intensity of the whole team kept the Mustangs at bay.
The Excalibur were recognized for their extraordinary season with two major league awards. Ms. Michel was recognized as the OUA Rookie of the Year, and Ms. Ogilvie took home the OUA Most Valuable Offensive Player award. With five major awards in two seasons, and the first OUA championship banner in women’s team sport, it’s clear the women’s lacrosse team is a force to be reckoned with.