TORONTO, Ont. – Seeking a second straight OUA championship, the No. 3 Guelph Gryphons traveled to Toronto Sunday afternoon to take on the No. 2 Varsity Blues. In what was a re-match of the OUA final in 2019, a game in which the Gryphons won 1-0, this time it was the Varsity Blues coming out on the winning end, downing Guelph 3-0.
 
Despite once again putting together another strong campaign in 2021, the Gryphons quest for a second straight OUA title came up just short after running into a very talented Toronto side on Sunday that was able to establish control of the match early on.
 
In the 4^th minute of the contest, the Varsity Blues opened the scoring. Making no mistake after receiving a nice pass, OUA leading scorer Sam McCrory got the ball past Gryphon's goalie Amanda Hodgert.
 
Continuing to put the pressure on, Toronto increased their lead to two with a goal from Molly Koop in the 26^th minute. Although trailing by a pair of goals, Hodgert still held her team within striking distance for the remainder of the first half making four saves in the second quarter.
 
Trying to work themselves back into the match in the third quarter, the Gryphons pushed but were unable to find much traction. Unfortunately for Guelph, despite their best efforts, the home side ultimately wound up netting a third goal just before the quarter expired. Taking advantage of a penalty corner, Toronto went up 3-0 when Katie Lynes found the back of the net.
 
Although the Gryphons were able to generate a shot on goal in the final quarter of play, that was as close as they would get to cutting into the Toronto lead.
 
In the end Toronto out-shot Guelph 14-3 on their way to claiming OUA gold.
 
The Varsity Blues will now move on to host the U SPORTS Championships.
 
In the end, the Gryphons finished their season 6-2-2, going 5-1-2 in the regular season before defeating Western 3-1 in the semi-finals ahead of their loss to Toronto.