The York University Lions field hockey team is primed and ready for the postseason.
The Lions had an extremely successful regular season, going 7-2-1, good for second place in the OUA East. The Lions began the season with two blowout wins over McGill, before tying Guelph 1-1 at Alumni Field in a game where Lexi Hannah scored York's only goal. They then beat Waterloo 2-0 on the road before being shutout 3-0 by the Toronto Varsity Blues. They followed up their first loss of the year by sweeping a home-and-home series with Queen's before falling to the Blues once again. The team wrapped up its season with victories over the McMaster Marauders and Western Mustangs.
They were a young team, but had a good core of veteran leadership. That group was headed by graduating veteran Frankie St. Louis, who led the team in goals with 10. Second-year Mackenzie Gee was second in goals. Reigning York female athlete of the week Elyse Ives had a strong finish to the year, scoring in both of the Lions final two regular season games and finishing the season with.
Head coach Zeeshan Minhas is extremely happy with how the regular season played out.
"The season was a huge success," he said. "Our record speaks volumes on how this very young team of athletes have come together as a cohesive unit. I am very happy and proud of how this group has performed on and off the field in a very short period of time."
By virtue of finishing third in the OUA overall standings (all teams are ranked based on number of points regardless of division for postseason seeding purposes), the Lions avoided playing a quarter-final game. Instead, they will face the No. 2-seeded Guelph Gryphons in the semi-finals.
Guelph finished 2nd in the OUA standings with a 7-1-2 record. They had 37 goals for this season, ranking third in the OUA. They allowed 13 goals, which ranks them 5th in the conference.
Minhas knows the Gryphons will be a tough test for his young group.
"Obviously I am expecting us to go into the game with a winning mindset, but I know it will not be easy," he said. "Guelph has always been a very good and competitive team. They have a very experienced coach and we have to respect that going into this game and we have to perform and compete at a much higher level than we have so far."
The Lions come in having scored 43 goals in the regular season, while allowing only 10. Both numbers put them ahead of the Gryphons, and while they were helped by playing McGill twice (Guelph only played them once), the game will certainly be a close one.
The game will take place Saturday, Oct. 22 in Guelph with the start time to be determined. Should the Lions win, they will play the winner of the other semi-final between top-seeded Toronto and the winner of the 4 vs. 5 quarter-final.
