The York University Lions women's soccer team is in the hunt for its first provincial banner in six years as the squad gets set to head to Ottawa for the 2015 Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Final Four Championships.
 
The four-team event will be held at the Matt Anthony Field, with the semifinals scheduled for Saturday and the gold- and bronze-medal games to be played on Sunday. All four games can be seen live online on OUA.tv.
 
This year's semifinal match-ups promise to be exciting with three nationally-ranked teams in the tournament. The No. 2 Lions will kick things off against the unranked Queen's Gaels in the first game at 11am, and the host Gee-Gees, ranked No. 3, will face the No. 6 Laurier Golden Hawks in the second semifinal at 2pm.
 
The Lions are making their first appearance at the OUA Final Four since 2009, when they claimed their most recent conference title. Since York's first trophy in program history in 2005, which was the first of three in five seasons (they also won in 2007), the OUA banner has been won by one of the four teams competing for it again this weekend. The Gee-Gees are the defending champions and also won the title in 2012 and 2006, while the Golden Hawks were victorious in 2013, 2010 and 2008 and the Gaels claimed their last championship in 2011.
 
The Lions will be favoured against the Gaels in this year's semifinal as the top seeds in the OUA West, a spot they earned with a sparkling undefeated regular-season record at 15-0-1. Their only draw came against nationally-ranked Western in the middle of the season, and was followed by an eight-match winning streak to close the year. The Lions appeared in the national rankings for the first time this season in Week 2, at No. 10, and have since risen to No. 2, a spot they have held for the last four weeks.
 
Despite their recent history of success, the Gaels are a surprise in this year's semifinals after a fifth-place finish in the OUA East Division. That was as a result of seven ties in 16 games, and they lost only twice in the regular season to go 7-2-7. They upset Toronto 1-0 in overtime in the first round and then defeated Laurentian 2-1 in the quarter-finals to advance this far.
 
The Lions reached the semifinals with a dominant 3-0 victory over the Guelph Gryphons in their quarter-final match on home turf last Sunday.
 
The other semifinal is a rematch from last year, which the Gee-Gees won 1-0 in overtime en route to the banner. Ottawa comes in this season as the OUA East's top seed and also boasts an undefeated record at 13-0-3, while the Golden Hawks finished second in the OUA West with a 12-2-2 mark. The Gee-Gees needed a thrilling overtime victory over rival Carleton in the quarter-finals to advance after twice giving up leads in the game, while the Golden Hawks moved on with a 1-0 victory over Windsor.
 
In addition to the OUA title, the four teams are competing for a berth at the CIS Women's Soccer Championships, which will be hosted by the University of British Columbia in Vancouver from Nov. 12-15. The two winners from Saturday's semifinals will also secure their spot in the national tournament.