Banner Season: Gaels, Gryphons get set for seventh straight championship clash on the pitch

Burlington, Ont. – Lucky number seven for the Queen’s Gaels and Guelph Gryphons.

For the seventh consecutive season, the two OUA women’s rugby powerhouses are the last two standing amidst the conference collective and will face off on the banner season stage.

“Queen’s vs. Guelph is one of the best rivalries in university sport and has been for close to a decade now,” said Gaels head coach Dan Valley. “These are the types of games that student-athletes will remember in 20 years.”

The upcoming fixture marks the fifth straight that will be played at Queen’s University’s Nixon Field, where the host Gaels collected four wins this season – including playoffs – en route to another unblemished conference record.

The Gryphons, meanwhile, finished right behind the championship hosts during the regular season, with their lone loss coming in the teams’ head-to-head matchup in Week 4.

It was a tale of two halves in that September 21st meeting, with the Gryphons jumping out to a 12-0 lead in the opening 15 minutes on the heels of tries from the Feasby sisters – Brooklynn and Kennedy. They would go on to take a 24-7 lead into the break.

But coming out of the half, the defending champion Gaels began chipping away. An early try from Madison Donnelly trimmed the deficit to 10, before former player of the year Lizzie Gibson did the same. With just under 10 minutes remaining, Eva Johnston completed the comeback for the Tricolour, while Gibson sealed with the deal on her own 16-point performance with a penalty kick.

The win continued the Gaels recent string of success over Guelph, a stretch that includes victories in the last two championship clashes. Most recently, they claimed a 33-19 win a year ago, backed by tries from five different players and four converts from Gibson.

In their previous four banner season meetings, however, it was Guelph taking three of them to build on their 17 OUA titles overall, far and away the leading figure in the OUA.

While Guelph has sustained great success over the past three decades, Queen’s four OUA banners have all come since 2013, and much of their recent success has come from the efforts of players like Gibson and fellow all-star Siobhan Sheerin.

The former earned her fifth OUA first team nod this year and her performance has reflected that all-star moniker all year. She brings an energy her Queen’s teammates are able to thrive off of and does so for every second she is on the pitch. The senior arts and science major from Caledon, Ont. also backs up that energy on the scoreboard, having paced the provincial pack this season with 105 points (five tries, 36 conversions, and one penalty goal).

Sheerin, a fellow Gaels senior, joins Gibson on the OUA first team, a deserving accolade for someone with such a storied season and career. Her five tries and 25 points overall placed her among the conference’s top scorers in 2024, but beyond the offensive output, the back row from Toronto, Ont. has been consistently among the OUA’s best overall players across the last several seasons.

Countering for Guelph will be player of the year Addy Holmes. A second-year criminal justice major from Waterloo, Ont., Holmes was nearly unstoppable for the Gryphons this season. She got her season underway with a trio of tries in the team’s opener and continued with similar offensive prowess thereafter, leading the league with 15 tries during the regular season. Her 75 points, meanwhile, trailed only Gibson in OUA scoring.

While Holmes is newer to the rivalry, fellow Gryphon Taylor McKnight brings several seasons of experience to the conference finale. Not only has McKnight, a fourth-year senior from Stouffville, Ont., been playing in big games for the past several seasons, she has been a standout therein. A three-time OUA all-star and U SPORTS all-Canadian at the hooker position, McKnight is always one to watch when the Gryphons get going on the pitch.

Both teams needed only one postseason win to get to this position, and both comfortably achieved the feat in their respective semifinal victories. Queen’s shutout Western by a 72-0 mark to punch their ticket to the finale, while Guelph overcame the Badgers 71-10 to secure their spot.

Sheerin led the way for the Gaels in their postseason bout with three tries, including the team’s first two of the game, while Lauryn Bons connected on six successful conversions. Among the other try scorers for Queen’s was all-star Jordyn Schneppenheim, while the Gaels defensive pressure proved equally impressive in the lopsided victory.

A similarly scorching start helped by the Gryphons in the driver’s seat early in their semifinal with Brock. Lara Jorgensen notched the opening try in the fifth minute and was followed shortly after by one from Holmes. A pair of tries from Kennedy Feasby helped further anchor what was an impressive first half from Guelph, while her third score after the break all but sealed the deal on the convincing victory.

The star power has shone all season long for Queen’s and Guelph, and their respective play has made both well deserving of a spot on the pitch this weekend. A tough challenge on both sides lies ahead, but regardless of which team prevails under the Friday night lights at Nixon Field, Valley knows the 2024 OUA Women’s Championship is “going to be a great one”.