CALGARY, AB – For just the second time in school history, the Guelph Gryphons will take part in a national semi-final game in women's hockey. On Thursday afternoon at the Martin MacPhail Centre in Calgary, the top-seeded Gryphons won 3-0 over the eighth-seeded St. Thomas Tommies in a CIS Quarter-final matchup at the 2016 CIS Women's Hockey Championships. With the result, the Gryphons are now through to the CIS semi-finals which will take place on Saturday, March 19 (2pm Mountain, 4pm Eastern). The Gryphons are awaiting their next opponent as they will face the winner of McGill/UBC.
 
Over the past few weeks, it seems as though the same handful of names from the Gryphons roster have dominated the headlines. Lamenta. Nooren. Shilton. Pinkerton. And deservedly so. Each of those players have been recently rewarded for terrific seasons by being recognized as All-Stars at either the OUA or CIS level. But in the team's opening game of the 2016 CIS Championships, it would be an unheralded fourth line centre who would come through to open the scoring for the Gryphs. Following a scoreless opening period, Guelph would go up 1-0 in the second thanks to Marcie Landman, a third year Human Kinetics major from Drayton, Ontario. After the Gryphons were able to force a turnover deep in St. Thomas territory, Landman
jumped on the loose puck and backhanded home her first career playoff goal. With both the regular season and postseason combined, it marked Landman's third goal of the season in this her 31^st game. Thanks to an unlikely source, the Gryphons had the lead. Thanks to one of their usual suspects, that lead was about to grow.
 
Later in the second period, fourth year forward Averi Nooren would put together an incredible individual effort to extend the Gryphons lead to 2-0. Nooren, who was the team's leading scorer during the regular season with 14 goals, came flying through the neutral zone and burst into the St. Thomas end of the ice before dancing around a Tommies defender and firing a shot past STU goalie Taylor Cook. The highlight reel effort gave fans in Calgary a glimpse as to why Nooren was named a CIS Second Team All-Canadian. It also gave the Gryphons a 2-0 lead after 40 minutes of play.
 
In the third period, Nooren was at it once again. For the second time on the afternoon, Nooren was able to use a great individual effort to get into an excellent scoring position. This time, the Aylmer, Ontario native would fire a perfectly placed shot low, blocker side to beat Taylor Cook, giving the Gryphons a 3-0 lead. The two goals on the day for Nooren were her first at the national level as she picked up 1 assist in 3 games during the team's trip to the CIS Championships last season.
 
At the other end of the ice, Guelph's second year goalie Valerie Lamenta was solid when called upon and made several critical saves early in the game. During the first period of play, St. Thomas was able to create some good scoring chances, but the recently named CIS Player of the Year stood tall, including a pair of stellar saves on Tommies forward Danielle Ring from point blank. Overall, Lamenta turned away all 18 shots sent her way for a shutout in what was her first official start at the national level. Last year as a rookie, Lamenta served as a backup for all three of the Gryphons games at the CIS Championships.
 
The Gryphons now await the winner of McGill/UBC to see who they will face in Saturday's semi-final. Thursday's victory by the Gryphons means that they have advanced to a national semi-final for just the second time in program history. Their lone other trip to the national semi's came in 1998 when the Gryphs lost 3-0 to the then-host Concordia Stingers.
 
Saturday's CIS semi-final will be televised nationally on Sportsnet ONE with puck drop set for 4pm Eastern Time (2pm Mountain).
 
NOTES 

• Averi Nooren was named Player of the Game for Guelph while St. Thomas goalie Taylor Cook took home the same honour for her team
• Shots were 29-18 in Guelph's favour
• Jessica Pellegrino picked up a pair of assists in the game while
• Both Gryphs & Buffalo Wild Wings will be hosting viewing parties on Saturday as the game will be nationally televised (Sportsnet ONE) and up on the big screens in those restaurants.