U Sports championships looming for football, rugby and soccer fall sports

As leaves continue to fall from the trees across much of Canada, the seasons are also changing across the U Sports landscape.

In the meantime, let’s take a look at the highlights of the U Sports world championship season, featuring women’s soccer and rugby, and men’s soccer.

Gee-Gees take soccer gold in Mexico

The Ottawa Gee-Gees women’s soccer team defeated Brazil’s Universidade Paulista 2-1 on Sunday in the gold medal match of the FISU Americas tournament, held in Merida, Mexico.

The tournament featured four squads: Ottawa, Paulista, Tecnológico de Monterrey (Mexico) and Universidad Salgado de Oliveira (Brazil). Ottawa has already qualified for next year’s tournament, which will take place in China.

Soumaya Bouak of Newmarket, Ont., gave Ottawa the lead in the decider in the 13th minute of play by blocking a shot with his left foot that went past the Brazilian goalkeeper.

Twelve minutes into the second half, Olivia Allen of Holland Landing, Ontario provided all the insurance Ottawa needed. Toronto’s Trinity Esprit did the work to set up the scoring by running down the wing and finding Allen up front to score the eventual game-winner.

The Gee-Gees went 4-0-1 in the tournament overall, with their draw against Paulista coming in the round-robin portion.

In conference play, Ottawa concluded its season with a 0-0 draw against the RMC Paladins on Sunday to finish with a 9-1-2 record, second in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) East behind 9-0-3 Queen’s University. . .

The regular season is coming to an end with only postponed games left to play before the playoffs. The U Sports Soccer Championship takes place November 10-13 with the women in Laval, Quebec and the men in Kamloops, BC.

The 13-1 UBC Thunderbirds are the top-ranked team in women’s soccer, while the York Lions (10-0-2), Cape Breton Capers (8-0-2), Ontario Tech Ridgebacks (11-1) and Montreal The Carabins (9-1-2), riding an eight-game winning streak, are among the top teams on the men’s side.

UBC continues to dominate the west in women’s rugby

The UBC Thunderbirds clinched their third consecutive Canada West (CW) women’s rugby title with a 24-12 victory over the Victoria Vikes on Sunday.

North Vancouver, BC native Savannah Bauder paced the Thunderbirds with three tries and two conversions, while CW MVP Shoshanah Seumanutafa of White Rock, BC also chipped in a try.

UBC heads to the U Sports women’s rugby championship in November and their only flaw is a 31-31 draw against the Vikes in mid-October.

Ranked No. 2, Laval narrowly edged out the University of Ottawa in the Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ) championship 13-11, with Alexina Tardif-Samson and Andreanne Valois providing the offense for Rouge et Or.

Top-ranked Queen’s reached the OUA finals with a 90-0 victory over Western University on Saturday, and will face Guelph on October 29. The Gryphons defeated Brock 58-0 in their semifinal match.

Guelph is the only team to have handed defending champion Golden Gaels a loss in the last two seasons, and also handed Queen’s their toughest test this year with a 45-18 loss in early October. Queen’s outscored their opponents 533-3 in their other six matches.

The Atlantic University Sport (AUS) final goes on Wednesday, with Acadia 5-1 vs. UPEI 4-2.

The women’s rugby championship will take place from November 2-6 in Victoria, BC

Road to the Vanier Cup

With a week left in the U Sports football season, the playoff picture on the way to the Vanier Cup is starting to take shape.

Toronto, Ontario native Keon Edwards notched his eighth straight 100-yard rushing effort as the Mustangs surpassed the 1,000-yard mark for the season, the second straight year the 2021 OUA all-star first team achieved that feat. .

The top dog in AUS remains 7-0 StFX, whose defense forced six turnovers along with seven sacks in a dominant 52-4 victory over St. Mary’s.

The highlight performance of the week was UBC’s Isaiah Knight of Ottawa, Ontario, who went for 231 scrimmage yards and three touchdowns, two receiving and one rushing, all in the first 20 minutes of the game. in a 35-29 win. that ended a perfect season for the 2021 Vanier Cup finalist Saskatchewan Huskies and secured a playoff spot on the CW for UBC.

Inactive 6-1 Laval Rouge et Or are the top-ranked team in the RSEQ and conclude their season on Saturday at Concordia.

The Vanier Cup will be in London, Ontario at Western Alumni Stadium on November 26.