Banner Season: Blues, Ravens to battle for banner once again
The Ravens opened the day's action against the Queen's Gaels in a semifinal contest. The No. 2 and No. 3 seeds put on quite the show for the crowd at IWC Pool. Carleton scored two quick goals to go up early, but the Queen's Gaels returned the favour and added another to lead 3-2 after one. The second quarter was much of the same back-and-forth action with both teams adding four goals to make the score 7-6 in favour of the Gaels at the halftime break.
Carleton was the first to find the back of the net after the break, tying the contest, but Queen's again countered to hold a 9-8 lead headed into the final frame. The Ravens wouldn't go away, scoring two goals to go up by one with just over three minutes remaining. The Gaels evened the score a minute later, but the Ravens scored twice more en route to a 12-10 final, to earn themselves a familiar spot in the gold medal game. Seven different Carleton players scored in the contest, led by Quinn Koster who recorded three goals. Joseph Krushelnick tallied three to lead the way for the Gaels.
In the second semifinal, the reigning champions did what they have grown accustomed to over the years - win. The Varsity Blues faced the Western Mustangs in what proved to be a one-sided battle. Toronto scored just seconds in the contest and never looked back. Toronto led 9-0 after the first quarter and, despite the Mustangs netting two goals in the second, continued to lead at the half by a 16-2 score line. The second half was much of the same with the defending champs recording twelve more goals, easily handling the Mustangs in a 28-3 contest.
The Varsity Blues will look to repeat as champions once again and, in the process, become the most successful team in Varsity Blues water polo history. Marco Ricci was dominant, scoring seven goals in Toronto's victory while ten other Varsity Blues recorded at least one. Aiden Dueck Thiessen, Andres Medina, and Alexander Kosivchenko were the goal scorers for the Mustangs.
In the third game of the day, the host Marauders did battle with the Ottawa Gee-Gees in the final match of the season for both teams. McMaster led after the opening quarter, but the Gee-Gees scored three times in the second to lead by one at the half. Ottawa extended the lead to three after the third and despite a late push by the hosts, it was Ottawa who held on to take the game 9-6 and earn a fifth-place finish at the championship.
The Gaels and Mustangs will look to return home with some hardware when the two squads match up in the bronze medal match tomorrow at noon.
Just a few hours later, Toronto will look to make it six championship banners in a row when they face a familiar foe in the Carleton Ravens for the ninth time in the last 10 gold medal medals. Game time for the championship contest is set for 3:15pm.
