A number of York Lions teams will be in action at home this weekend, promising an exciting couple of days of athletics on the Keele campus.
The York Lions men's football team welcomes the Ontario University Athletics Association (OUA)leading Queen’s University Gaels to York Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 4 at 1pm for the third of four home games this season. The team will be in tough against the mighty Gaels, who crushed the University of Western Ontario Mustangs 43-16 this past weekend to remain the only undefeated squad in the OUA. The Queen’s defence is the stingiest in the league, allowing only 78 points, while the offence is second best, behind the University of Ottawa, after scoring 218.
Last week, the Lions were in Hamilton to face the McMaster University Marauders. The game was a respectable 14-0 at half time after a pair of field goals and a touchdown, but the Marauders came out flying in the second half to run the score up. York’s defence was highlighted by Steven Reading who had nine solo tackles and Rob Thomas with six tackles and one sack. Quarterback Nick Coutu completed six of 18 passes for 42 yards while Matthew Fewell had two catches for 17 yards and Graham Allen had a 17-yard reception.
The women’s volleyball team will be playing its first games at home this weekend as part of the York Excalibur tournament. Matches are scheduled for Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Tait McKenzie Centre on the Keele campus. The badminton team will also make its first appearance at home when it opens the season against the University of Waterloo Warriors on Saturday, Oct. 4 at 10am.
Rounding out the home schedule are the tennis teams. The men’s and women’s squads will be in action at home this weekend for their final regular season clashes. They will face the Waterloo Warriors on Saturday, Oct. 4 at 11 and 11:30am, and the Western Mustangs on Sunday,Oct. 5 at 12 and 1pm. Both teams currently sit comfortably in playoff contention and will be looking for strong performances this weekend as they gear up for the postseason.
Plenty of teams are also on the road this weekend. The Lions men’s and women’s soccer teams travel to Hamilton on Saturday, Oct. 4 for games at 1 and 3:15pm where they will take on the McMaster Marauders. After that game, they will head to St. Catharines on Sunday, Oct. 5, for games at 1pm and 3:15pm when they face the Brock University Badgers.
Last week, both squads were impressive once again as they increased their point totals in their respective divisions. The men easily defeated the University of Windsor Lancers 5-0 and then edged out a 2-1 victory over the Western Mustangs. Moreno Alberti scored a pair of goals in the Windsor game while Adrian Pena netted one in each game. With only one goal in two games, goalkeeper Alim Karim lowered his goals against average to a Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) best. Meanwhile, the women earned a 2-0 triumph over Windsor and a 1-1 draw with Western after two hard-fought games. Nicole Markowitz scored a goal in each game and Kelsey Desjarlais added the other.
The women’s hockey team begins its regular season schedule on Saturday, Oct. 4 at 2pm when they head out on the road to meet the Queen’s Gaels before heading to St. Catharines to face the Brock Badgers on Sunday at 3pm. Head coach Dan Church is now in his fifth season behind the bench for the Lions and will be looking to lead the Lions back to the playoffs for the second consecutive year. Star forward Mandy Cole is healthy after an ankle injury sidelined her last season, and solid defenceman Kelsey Webster is back again to man the blue line. A number of talented rookies have also been brought in at all positions in an effort to improve upon the 11-11-4-1 record from one year ago.
The field hockey team will be busy this week with four games on the schedule. The first was last night against the University of Toronto Varsity Blues. On the weekend, York will be in Ottawa for three games in two days. On Saturday, Oct. 4, the women will play McGill in the morning at 10:45am and then face Queen’s later in the day at 5:45pm. On Sunday they will round out their weekend with a game against the host Carleton University Ravens at 11:30am.
The cross country team will be in Kingston for the Queen’s Invitational. Last week, the women’s team finished in sixth place on the strength of Carol Graham’s eighth place finish, her first top 10 of the season.
Finally, the women’s rugby team plays its final game of the season on the road against the Brock Badgers on Saturday, Oct. 4 at 1pm. The women were battered in a 65-0 loss to the Trent University Excalibur at home last weekend and are looking to salvage their season with their first victory against Brock.
Submitted to YFile by Alyson Grant, sport & recreation information officer