The No. 9 nationally ranked York University Lions women's hockey team battled the No. 4 Toronto Varsity Blues for first place in the OUA standings on Saturday afternoon and came away with a tight 2-0 defeat.
 
Offence was hard to come by for both teams as they played strong defensive games and got solid play from their goaltenders.
 
With one minute left on the clock in the first period, Mathilde De Serres opened the scoring to give the visitors a 1-0 advantage. That would be all the offence until the dying seconds of the game, when Natasha Athanasakos scored into an empty net to secure the victory.
 
Blues goaltender Erica Fryer was strong between the pipes for her team, stopping all 23 shots she faced to record the shutout. Her counterpart at the other end of the rink, Lauren Dubie stopped 26 of the 27 shots fired her way but it was not enough to secure the win.
 
The victory moved the Blues into first place in the OUA standings with 34 points and a 10-3-1-2 record. The Lions are just behind them, sitting second with 31 points thanks to their 10-5-0-1 mark on the season.
 
After two weeks of playing just once, the Lions will resume two-game weekends next week beginning with a visit to Oshawa, Ont., on Friday to face the Ontario Tech Ridgebacks. One day later, they will head to Kingston, Ont., to face the Queen's Gaels. Puck drop in both games is set for 7:30pm.