The York University Lions women's basketball team is back in the postseason for a sixth straight season, and looking for their first tournament triumph in four years. Their last came Feb. 20, 2019, a 76-70 upset win over Queen's.

The Lions are back in the position of the underdog, slotting in as the No. 11 seed in the OUA after a 9-13 regular season. That record is slightly misleading when you look at the quality of their talent and their level of play, however. Of their 13 losses, five of them came by two or fewer possessions. That includes two consecutive one-point defeats in early-January to TMU (71-70) and Nipissing (72-71).

"Although it wasn't the record we were hoping for, we're quite happy that we competed in the majority of our games," said head coach Christa Eniojukan. "If you look at our losses, they were very close, so we feel like we can compete with anybody in the league. We feel good going into the playoffs knowing we have a lot of experience in end-of-game situations. We feel confident about being able to play in late-game situations against some of the top teams in the province."

They will face the No. 6 seed Guelph Gryphons in Round 1, a team that finished 16-6 and won four of its last five games. The Lions only matchup against Guelph in the regular season, an 82-72 loss on Nov. 19. The Lions feel this will be another close game, and are in a positive frame of mind heading into this one despite being the underdog.

"The vibe around the team is good," Eniojukan said. "We're feeling confident, we had a close game with them in the regular season, and our team has gotten a lot better since November, so we're hopeful that we can pull this off and come out with a 'W.'"

Leading the charge for the Lions will be their solid 1–2 punch of Lauren Golding and Kiara Leveridge. They finished in the top two on the team in scoring, with Golding's 17.3 points per game pacing the squad, followed by 14.5 a game for Leveridge. Let's also not forget Cyanna King, who finished tied for the OUA lead in field goal percentage at 57.5 percent. From a rebounding standpoint, they wereen't too bad, either. King (6.3), Golding (4.1) and Leveridge (3.8) made up the top three in the OUA in offensive rebounding on the best team in the province in that department at just over 19 per game. Golding (11.0) and King (10.4) finished second and fourth respectively in the province in total rebounds, where the team finished second in the conference at 43.4 per game.  

The Lions will be putting an emphasis on a couple areas in this game: one being discipline on both sides of the ball. The Gryphons lead the OUA in steals (12.0), while also committing the second-most turnovers in the league (20.7). That in mind, they're putting a premium on possessions – maintaining the ball when they have it while creating additional possessions defensively.

"We definitely have to make sure we take care of the basketball, and, on the flip side, we had success with (creating turnovers) the last time we played them," Eniojukan said. "Defensively, we're going to come out aggressive; we just have to make sure we don't get ourselves into foul trouble. 

"We're going to go after them defensively, and we'll mix things up defensively."

The other area of focus for the Lions is on the interior. They want to attack the paint offensively and get easy buckets and chances at the free throw line. The Lions plan to do what they've done all season long – crash the glass – and their size is something they see as a clear advantage.

"We're going to be crashing the (offensive) boards to give us second and third chances to score, and we're going to exploit our advantage with our strength and size," Eniojukan says. "Our forwards are stronger than theirs, and we're going to make sure that we go inside on them and hopefully get them into foul trouble."

The game tips off Wednesday night at 7:00 pm from the Gryphons Athletic Centre in Guelph.