The York University Lions women's tennis team won the silver medal at the OUA championships for the third straight year on Sunday with a 4-3 loss to the Western Mustangs in the tournament final at the Mayfair Parkway Tennis Club.
The Mustangs claimed the championship banner for the second year in a row, winning the final by a single point in the same way they did last year. The host Toronto Varsity Blues won the bronze medal.
The Lions men's team also had the same finish as last year, ending the tournament in fourth place with a 7-0 loss to the Mustangs in the bronze-medal match. The Montreal Carabins won the gold medal and the Varsity Blues captured the silver.
In the women's tournament, the top-seeded Lions earned a bye through the first round and then defeated the Carabins 6-1 in the semifinals to reach their fourth straight OUA final.
On Sunday against Western, the Lions dropped all three doubles matches to the Mustangs to fall behind 1-0 early. From there, the two teams exchanged singles wins with Western's No. 1 Helen He taking down
Claudia Poluga and York's No. 2
Julia Khalilova winning a tough three-set match over Sophie Bui. However, wins by Western's Agathe Keromnes and Angela Crowley sealed the deal for the defending champions.
Also winning singles matches for the Lions were
Eugenie Lim Ah Tock and
Isabella Baston. Khalilova and Lim Ah Tock were both named OUA all-stars at the conclusion of the tournament.
For the second consecutive season, the fifth-seeded Lions upset the No. 4 Waterloo Warriors 4-3 in the quarter-finals to advance to the medal round of the championship. The two teams split their six singles matches with three apiece, and it was the doubles point the Lions had earned earlier in the afternoon that made the difference. Winning their singles matches for the Lions were
Tre Eli,
Sahil Sareen and
Karan Negi.
The Lions were then defeated 7-0 by the eventual champion Carabins in the semis and by the same score by the Mustangs in the bronze-medal match to finish in fourth place.
