The York University Lions women's hockey team suffered a 4-1 defeat at the hands of the Waterloo Warriors in its first game of the new year on Saturday afternoon at Canlan Ice Sports.
 
The contest began as a tight affair with the two teams trading goals in the first period. Waterloo opened the scoring at the midpoint of the frame on a goal by Rebecca Rutherford, but the Lions responded less than four minutes later when Sarah Power (Caledon, Ont.) scored the first of her career to make it 1-1.
 
The Lions outshot the Warriors 9-5 in the second period but it was the visitors to moved ahead on the scoreboard when Alison Hanson scored at 16:52 and Waterloo carried the 2-1 lead into the final period.
 
Hanson extended her team's lead at 9:24 of the third for a 3-1 Waterloo score, and the Warriors rounded out the scoring just before the final whistle with an empty net goal by Cynthia Cavanagh while York goaltender Eva Hall (Main-A-Dieu, N.S.) was on the bench.
 
Hall finished with 17 saves on 20 shots, while her counterpart at the other end of the ice, Stephanie Sluys, made 25 saves and allowed just the one goal.
 
The Warriors improved to 7-2-5-1 with the win to keep pace with the top teams in the OUA and remain third in the conference. The loss dropped the Lions to 2-1-7-4.
 
The Lions will be back in action again this weekend when they travel to Waterloo, Ont., on Sunday evening to face the Laurier Golden Hawks in a game beginning at 7:30pm.