Richmond Hill/North York, Ont. – For the first time since 2016, the national university field hockey championship has teams from coast to coast competing for the ultimate prize: a national title.
The tournament returns to a four-team round-robin format after the last six tournaments pitted the OUA champion and Canada West winner against each other in a best-of-three series. This year’s event features the host York Lions, the OUA champion Waterloo Warriors, the Canada West-winning UVic Vikes and, for the first time, the Atlantic University Field Hockey League champion UPEI Panthers.
The host Lions make their second appearance in three years and come into the tournament off an OUA bronze medal. They put together an eight-win regular season, including a program record-tying six consecutive shutouts to open the season. However, they fell in penalties in the OUA semi-final to the Guelph Gryphons, forcing them to play in the bronze medal game against Toronto. York was led by second-year forward Juliet Redelaar, one of five OUA co-leaders with six goals, along with OUA all-star and U SPORTS all-Canadian Abby Thompson. In goal, the Lions featured their stalwart netminder Jade Lew, who was named the OUA’s Gail Wilson Outstanding Contributor Award winner, and has posted seven shutouts over the last two seasons.
As for the Warriors, they’re perhaps the most surprising entry into this year’s tournament, returning for the first time since 2013. They boasted just a 6-4 record in the regular season, but could be peaking at just the right time. Led by OUA all-star and U SPORTS all-Canadian Meagan Hobson, who also one of the five players to finish with six goals on the season, the Warriors pulled off a stunning upset over the OUA’s No. 1 seed, the previously-unbeaten Toronto Varsity Blues, in the semi, before downing the Guelph Gryphons 2-0 in the championship game to earn their first conference title since 2003.
The five-time defending national champion Vikes return to the national tournament for the sixth consecutive time and for the 11th time in the last 12 tournaments dating back to 2011. Guided by second-year coach Krista Thompson, who took over for the legendary Lynne Beecroft, the Vikes went 5-1-2 in the regular season, earning their sixth consecutive Canada West title by virtue of goal differential in head-to-head competition against UBC. Victoria was led offensively by Chloe Langkammer, who finished second in the conference with six goals, and by goalkeeper Anais Chase who finished with a league-leading six shutouts.
Finally, the Panthers will compete for a national title for the first time in program history under the revived four-team format. Three-time reigning champions of Atlantic University Field Hockey, they went 10-0-2 in the regular season, and captured the Atlantic title in dramatic fashion with a 1-0 penalty shootout win over the unbeaten St. Mary’s Huskies on a winning goal by AUFH MVP and U SPORTS All-Canadian Livi Lawlor. UPEI possessed three of the top five goal scorers in AUFH, with U SPORTS all-Canadian Kayla Batchilder leading the way with 18, followed by Jenaya Ross in fourth with 10 goals and Carly Acorn in fifth with eight.
To view the full tournament schedule, head to yorkulions.ca/FH2024, and to stream all games live and on-demand, you can visit yorkulions.ca/FH2024BROADCAST.