The York University Lions women's hockey team was defeated by the host Western Mustangs by a score of 5-1 at Thompson Arena in London, Ont., on Sunday afternoon.
 
A scoreless first period gave way to a busy second where the two teams combined for four goals. The Mustangs got on the board first at 7:14 on a goal by Amanda Pereira, and made it 2-0 less than one minute later when Lyndsay Kirkham scored her first of three on the day at 8:01.
 
Late in the period the Lions finally got on the board themselves when team captain Amy Locke (Toronto) scored a shorthanded goal thanks to an assist from her sister, Erin Locke (Toronto) to make the score 2-1.
 
However, the Mustangs restored their two-goal lead 30 seconds later when Alyssa Chiarello scored on the power play, and it remained 3-1 heading into the final period.
 
Most of the third was played without a goal. The Lions pulled starting goaltender Lauren Dubie (London, Ont.) early for an extra attacker to try and get back into the game, but Kirkham scored her second of the day at 16:51 and completed the hat trick at 19:37, both into the empty net, to put the game away.
 
Dubie finished with 20 saves on the 23 shots she faced, while Western's Katie Jacobs made 27 saves for the win.
 
The Lions have now lost seven straight games and are now 1-1-6-3 on the year, while the Mustangs picked up their second victory in a row to improve to 5-1-5-1.
 
The Lions have a short turnaround and will be back in action on Thursday evening (Nov. 24) when they travel downtown to face the Ryerson Rams in a game beginning at 7:15pm. They will return home two days later to host the Toronto Varsity Blues at Canlan Ice Sports on Saturday afternoon at 2pm.