Varsity Athletics | 2/27/2025 10:00:00 AM
The playoffs roll on for the York University Lions women’s hockey and men’s volleyball teams, while the wrestling team takes on the nation at the inaugural Wrestling Canada Lutte U SPORTS Invitational Championships.
Both the women’s hockey and men’s volleyball teams were victorious in their playoff games last week, sending them to the next round of the OUA playoffs.
Dan Church‘s team jumped out to a 4-0 lead on the road in Windsor in the OUA West Play-in Game last Thursday, before holding on for a 5-3 win. That sets up an OUA quarter-final matchup with the Guelph Gryphons, the OUA’s No. 1 overall seed. If that sounds familiar, it should. Just a year ago, the Lions stunned the Nipissing Lakers, the No. 1 seed in the OUA East, in the quarters, and now, they have a chance to re-write that script on the West side of the bracket.
Meanwhile, Jordan Taylor’s team overcame a 24-22 first-set deficit to win 27-25 en route to a 3-0 sweep (27-25, 25-21, 25-19) of the Nipissing Lakers in the OUA quarter-finals. The reward: they get to travel to Windsor to take on the OUA’s No. 1-seed Lancers for a right to play in the OUA championship game and the U SPORTS championships in Brandon, Man.
Meanwhile, a quintet of York wrestlers will ascend on St. Catherine’s for the Wrestling Canada Lutte U SPORTS Invitational Championships this weekend. The Lions will look to improve upon their 14th-place finish at the 2024 U SPORTS championships in Guelph.
Here’s a deeper look at what’s going on in the den this week:
WOMEN’S HOCKEY
The Lions will start their quarter-final series against the Guelph Gryphons Thursday night at 7:30 from Gryphon Centre Arena. Yes, as mentioned, the Gryphons are the top team in the province, had the fourth-best record in the nation and wound up fourth in the final U SPORTS Top 10 rankings released Feb. 18. However, York and Guelph split their two games, with the Lions grabbing a 1-0 win in Guelph – their first since Jan. 20, 2008 – on Oct. 24, thanks to a goal from Ava Ricker-Singh with 1:32 left in the third period and 22 saves from Emma Wedgewood. The Gryphons took the final game of the regular season on Feb. 15 by a 4-1 score, in a game that was meaningless to York in terms of seeding, as it had already clinched a play-in berth. All that to say, while the Lions come in as heavy underdogs, they’ve played that role before, and done so valiantly. Does this mean they will win the series? Not necessarily. What it does mean is, they have shown an ability to win big games at the most important time of year, and the series will in all likelihood, be close. York will host Game 2 of the series Saturday afternoon at 1:00 pm from Canlan Ice Sports, while Game 3 will go Sunday back in Guelph at 2:30 pm, if necessary. You can get your Game 2 tickets here, and stream all three games here.
MEN’S VOLLEYBALL
As the old saying goes, “if you want to be the best, you have to beat the best.” Well, as fate would have it, the Lions have a chance to do just that Friday night when they travel to Windsor for the OUA semi-final. With their win last Friday against the Nipissing Lakers in the quarters, the Lions guaranteed themselves a chance to play for a medal and a trip to nationals. The only question that remains is what colour medal will they play for? A win on Friday over the top-seeded Lancers advances the red and white to their first OUA championship in two decades, since they won it all in 2004-05 with a 2-1 series win in a best-of-three over the Western Mustangs. It will also advance the Lions to their first U SPORTS championship in 10 years, after they won an OUA bronze medal in 2015 with a five-set triumph over the Waterloo Warriors. A loss on Friday and the Lions will play the bronze medal game for the second time in three years, and would be looking to avenge a tightly-contested four-set loss to the Toronto Varsity Blues in the 2023 bronze bout. Additionally, with Toronto’s upset loss to Western in Friday’s quarter-finals, there is still a chance York can host either the gold or bronze medal game. If the Lions and Mustangs have the same result in the semis – win or lose – York will host Western for a medal – a gold medal if both teams win, or a bronze medal if both teams lose. The Lions will be in tough against the Lancers, obviously, but something that could play a factor is the fact Windsor was one of York’s two non-combatants this season. Whether that will work in the Lions favour remains to be seen, but York’s tall lineup, strong defence and crafty setting game led by Jasraj Nijjar is something to keep an eye on. As well, the Lancers lead the OUA in blocks with 198, and while York is third, the Lancers are well ahead of the Lions 168 total blocks. The Lions will look to be aggressive on offence and find creative ways to beat a Windsor block that finished second in the country. First serve flies at 7:00 pm Friday night from the Toldo Lancer Centre. You can stream the game here.
WRESTLING
The Lions will send five wrestlers to the inaugural Wrestling Canada Lutte U SPORTS Championships in St. Catharine’s, hosted by the Brock Badgers in conjunction with Wrestling Canada Lutte. The five Lions taking on the nation’s best will be Arely Torales (56kg), Prabhleen Randhawa (65kg), Stephan Niron (57kg), Ali Dahcha (90kg) and Rav Chahal (125kg). Each of these Lions have won medals this season, with all but Chahal bringing home hardware from the OUA championships earlier this month at Sault Ste. Marie. The Lions finished 14th at last year’s championships, and will look to improve upon that, potentially cracking the top 10 this season. The Lions will lean on the men’s trio of Niron, Dahcha and Chahal, which helped the men’s team rank in the Wrestling Canada Lutte U SPORTS Top 10, including 10th heading into the U SPORTS championships this weekend. Action kicks off Friday from Canada Games Park in St. Catharine’s. You can stream the entire championships on the CBC Sports YouTube Channel, and the medal matches can be seen on CBC Sports and CBC Gem. Each day will feature separate mat streams, with four streams on Day 1 and two streams on Day 2.