The York Lions field hockey team defeated the Western Mustangs by a score of 3-1 on Saturday, and lost to the Waterloo Warriors by a score of 1-0 later that same day. The games, which were held in Guelph, made up the season-opening weekend for the Lions’ female field hockey players. The team is looking to build on its success from last season, which ended with the Lions’ best finish in five years.
The first half of the Lions’ game against the Mustangs was scoreless, but early in the second half Michelle Per, the team’s leading scorer in the previous season, scored to give the Lions a 1-0 lead. Lions rookie Jade Robertson followed up with another goal, the first of her career, just a few minutes later, and then Mustang Nicole Mills scored to bring the score to 2-1. Just before the game ended, Lion Ravneet Kalkat scored a goal, ending the game with a score of 3-1 in favour of the Lions.
The Lions’ second game was delayed by rainy weather. Once it began, the Warriors’ Stephanie Snyder scored just two minutes into the game. The Lions were unable to score throughout the game, which ended with a score of 1-0 in favour of the Warriors.
Zeeshan Minhas, head coach of the Lions field hockey team, is optimistic after the season-opening weekend.
“There’s definitely a lot of improvement from last season,” he says. Minhas cited the six new recruits who have joined the team, as well as a strong preseason, as reasons for the notable improvement.
Moving forward, Minhas and his team hope to improve their standings in the Ontario University Athletics, hopefully to the point of winning the OUA championship. Last season the Lions made it to the bronze medal game in the OUA finals before finishing in fourth place. Minhas hopes for the team to earn a berth at the Canadian Interuniversity Sport championships as well.
There will be challenges to overcome if the team is to achieve these goals and Minhas is focusing on tackling one challenge in particular.
“We are a very young team with a lot of hype,” he says. “We don’t really have any senior players right now.” The young new players joining the team, he explains, are talented but inexperienced. But Minhas believes that his team can still achieve their goals if they stay focused and keep working hard.
Minhas also looks forward to gaining more support from the York community this season, and that is part of the reason why he believes his team really needs to work towards a championship. “We are trying to build our team,” he says. “we need to win something before everybody becomes aware of who we are.”
Minhas also hopes to see community members out in support of the Lions field hockey team this upcoming weekend, when they will host the OUA teams on campus and will compete in three games themselves.
Hassam Munir, Sports & Health Editor
Images courtesy of the York Lions
