GUELPH, ONT.
– It took a Baker's Dozen of losses but the McGill women's field hockey team rallied with three second-half goals to upset Western 3-1 at the consolation semifinal at the OUA championship, Saturday.
The result, McGill's first win of the season, snapped a 13-game losing streak, dating back to their last win, a 6-0 decision over McMaster in the season finale of the 2018 OUA championship, which is an open tourney that has no qualifying process. It also halted a seven-game skid against Western, since a 3-2 win on Sept. 10, 2017.
The Martlets reached the consolation round after a 7-0 setback to Toronto in Friday's tourney opener and the three goals scored against Western was McGill's highest offensive output since the 2018 season finale.
The Mustangs struck first when
Cameron Hahn connected in just the fourth minute of play.
"I actually forgot that we were down at the start of the game, because we believed so much that we could win this game, so we just kept going," said McGill co-coach
Vimal Patel. "It was about maintaining the nerves. We started to steady the ship in the second half and it went well from there.
McGill was able to penetrate the Western defence in the second half, scoring a season-high three goals in a 10-minute span.
Brittany Ng, a sophomore forward from Toronto, tallied the equalizer in the 37th minute.
Constanza Martinez-Ramirez, a fifth-year senior from Chile, made it 2-1 with the game-winner just five minutes later and
Moyandi Udugama, a master's student from Ottawa, added an insurance marker in the 46th minute.
Western had many chances in the final quarter but was unable to convert on any of the four penalty corners in the last nine minutes.
Both sides ended up with four shots on net. McGill goalkeeper
Isabella Frymoyer, an international Development Studies sophomore from Arlington, Va., saved three of four shots for her first career win, while Western's
Sarah Hunter was beaten on all three shots faced.
McGill (1-1) will battle Queen's (1-1) for fifth place on Sunday morning at 11 a.m. That contest will follow the seventh-place game between Western (0-2) and McMaster (0-2) at 9 a.m.
BOXSCORE
2019 OUA CHAMPIONSHIP SCHEDULE & RESULTS
