General | 2/9/2025 7:25:00 PM
Toronto, Ont. – The Toronto Varsity Blues have done it again.
For the second consecutive year and eighth time in nine years, the Blues were crowned OUA badminton champions on Sunday afternoon at Tait McKenzie Centre.
Toronto went undefeated on the road to glory, capping off a banner weekend by taking down the Waterloo Warriors 7-1 in the gold medal tie to bring home another conference banner. The Varsity Blues won each of the first three matches in two straight games in the gold medal tie, securing the title with a mixed doubles win by Nathan Mills and Jackie Dent over Michael Ji and Jessica Cheng (22-20, 21-18).
Toronto started their day Sunday with a semi-final win over the host York Lions, winning their semi-final 6-4. Toronto went down 1-0 after a win by OUA male MVP and rookie of the year Brian Yang over Chenyi Tao (21-7, 21-7), but won three straight matches to go up 3-1 and never looked back en route to the final.
York bounced back from the tough semi-final loss to win the bronze medal for a second straight year, defeating the Western Mustangs by a 6-3 count. Yang went 2-0 in the bronze medal tie, beating Jackie Cai 2-0 (21-10, 21-4) in singles play before teaming up with Sophia Nong in mixed doubles to down Jasper Tang and Karen Ki 2-0 (21-7, 21-10) Female rookie of the year Chloe Lee won her mixed doubles match with former OUA male rookie of the year Victor Lai, defeating Noah Xu and Jasmine Shi 2-1 (20-22, 21-16, 21-14).
The battle for fifth place saw the McMaster Marauders take down the Ottawa Gee-Gees by a score of 6-4. The Marauders jumped out to a 4-1 lead before Ottawa battled back to square the tie at 4-4, but the maroon and white got the best of the garnet and gray with two straight wins to seal it. Aeris Wong and Natalie Ye won over Dani Roth and Isabelle Zhang 2-0 (21-14, 21-16), before Jeslyn Chow and Emily Xiao beat Meagan Laforge and Sophia Laverdiere, also by a 2-0 score (21-12, 21-9).
The tie for seventh place went to the Ontario Tech Ridgebacks, who downed the TMU Bold 5-5 (12-11). The deciding games came in the final match, when Joshua Nguyen and Jailyn Joensen won in two straight over the Bold’s Enoch Song and Audrey Chen (21-7, 21-9).
FINAL STANDINGS:
Gold: Toronto
Silver: Waterloo
Bronze: York
4th: Western
5th: McMaster
6th: Ottawa
7th: Ontario Tech
8th: TMU Bold
9th: Guelph Gryphons
MAJOR AWARDS:
Male MVP – Brian Yang (York)
Female MVP – Jacqueline Cheung (Toronto)
Male Rookie of the Year – Brian Yang (York)
Female Rookie of the Year – Chloe Lee (York)
Coach of the Year – Nicky Aung (Toronto)
OUA ALL-STARS
FEMALE:
Jacqueline Cheung (Toronto)
Jackie Dent (Toronto)
Chloe Chui (Toronto)
Ashley Wong (Waterloo)
Jessica Cheng (Waterloo)
Sophia Nong (York)
Jeslyn Chow (McMaster)
Chloe Hoang (Ontario Tech)
MALE:
Harold Tan (Toronto)
Peter Briggs (Toronto)
Jacob Kim (Waterloo)
Michael Ji – (Waterloo)
Thomas Dent (Waterloo)
Brian Yang (York)
Victor Lai (York)
Joshua Nguyen (Ontario Tech)