Bronze-medal Game: Condon leads Guelph to fourth straight bronze medal

VICTORIA (CIS) – Led by a Ciara Condon hat-trick, the Guelph Gryphons captured the bronze medal for the fourth consecutive year at the Field Hockey Canada - CIS women’s championship thanks to a dominating 6-0 win over the Waterloo Warriors, Sunday afternoon at the University of Victoria.

It marked the fifth victory over Waterloo in as many head-to-head meetings this fall for the Gryphons, who beat the Warriors twice in the regular season, 4-1 in last weekend’s OUA final and 5-0 in CIS round-robin action on Saturday.

Waterloo ends the national championship with an 0-4 record after failing to score a single goal while allowing 24.

Condon, a native of London, Ont., opened the scoring with a pair 30 seconds apart in the fifth minute and made it 4-0 at the 22-minute mark. Crysta Stubbs and Laura Strauss also found the back of the net before the halftime break.  

Austyn Baumeister had the lone second-half marker, while Kaye McLagan posted the shutout.

Despite the lopsided final score, Waterloo never stopped competing as defenders Alexandra Kocukov and Katrina Schigas held their OUA rivals to only four penalty corners in the game. Stephanie Snyder spent the better part of the contest up front and caused a lot of havoc for the Gryphons back line.

The Gryphons made good on three free-play attempts beginning in the fifth minute when third-year captain Erin Houle made a slicing pass to an open Elizabeth Pritchard on the right side of the circle. Pritchard found Condon at the stroke, and the Guelph game MVP curled strong and slotted the ball in for the game-winner.

Condon picked up her second goal 30 seconds later picking up a long pass and making a 25-yard run into the circle. She blasted a shot far post that took a fortunate deflection off a Waterloo defender to lift the Gryphons up by two.

In the 18th minute Guelph showed their experience slicing passes from right to left. Nicole Paola made a nice deflection out to Amy Wise who deflected it in low to Stubbs. Stubbs pulled off a nifty back-hand deflection that caught Waterloo keeper Nickole LeVear out of position to give the Gryphons a 3-0 advantage.

Moments later, Allison Chute was taken out by LeVear after she was sprung on a breakaway. The resulting stroke was put away by Condon for her third or the game giving the Gryphons a 5-0 lead entering halftime.

Waterloo held off the Warriors for much of the second half, generating some promising attack and their third penalty corner of the tournament. Despite being able to capitalize the Gryphons were held to only one goal that was credited to Baumeister in the 54th minute.

SCORING SUMMARY
GUE: 5-1: 6
WAT: 0-0: 0
 
First half
GUE: Ciara Condon (1), 5th minute
GUE: Ciara Condon (2), 5th minute
GUE: Crysta Stubbs (3), 18th minute
GUE: Ciara Condon (3), 22nd minute
GUE: Laura Straus (1), 31st minute

Second Half
GUE: Austyn Baumeister (1), 54th minute

Goaltenders
GUE: Kaye McLagan (W, 70:00, 0 GA, 2-2)
WAT: Nickole LeVear (L, 70:00, 6 GA, 0-4)

Players of the game
GUE: Ciara Condon (London, Ont.)
WAT: Lauren Aitchison (Oxshott, UK)

STANDINGS, SCHEDULE & RESULTS (PACIFIC TIME)

Round-robin standings (FINAL)

  GP W L T GF GA PTS
1. UBC  3 3 0 0 21 3 9
2. Victoria 3 2 1 0 8 4 6
3. Guelph 3 1 2 0 6 10 3
4. Waterloo 3 0 3 0 0 18 0

NOTE: 3 points for a win and 1 point for a tie.

Thursday, Oct. 31
16:30 Game 1: UBC 10, Waterloo 0
18:30 Game 2: Victoria 3, Guelph 0

Friday, Nov. 1
16:30 Game 3: UBC 7, Guelph 1
18:30 Game 4: Victoria 3, Waterloo 0

Saturday, Nov. 2
13:00 Game 5: Guelph 5, Waterloo 0
15:00 Game 6: UBC 4, Victoria 2

Sunday, Nov. 3
13:00 Bronze medal: Guelph 6, Waterloo 0
15:00 Championship final: Victoria vs. UBC (CIS-SIC.tv)

Note: All games will be played at UVIC Field 1.

About Canadian Interuniversity Sport

Canadian Interuniversity Sport is the national governing body of university sport in Canada. Every year, 11,000 student-athletes and 700 coaches from 55 universities and four regional associations vie for 21 national championships in 12 different sports. CIS also provides high performance international opportunities for Canadian student-athletes at Winter and Summer Universiades, as well as numerous world university championships. For further information, visit www.cis-sic.ca or follow us on:

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