Wondrous winter for Warrior women

Waterloo enjoys strong campaigns with hockey, basketball, volleyball playoffs around the corner

Warrior women are kicking butt and taking names in hockey, basketball and volleyball. Warrior men, not so much. A glance at the Ontario University Athletic standings shows the University of Waterloo women at the top of the standings in all three winter sports, while the men’s teams are at the bottom in two and well behind the leaders in a third.

Two women’s teams, hockey and volleyball, are in the U Sports top-10 national rankings, and all three are hopeful of making post-season noise.

The closest the men’s teams will get to the playoffs is cheering the women on.

So what’s actually going on at the Physical Activities Complex and Columbia Icefield?

Roly Webster, Waterloo’s director of athletics and recreation, said it’s simply a matter of timing. University sports are cyclical in nature, he said, and the stars are currently in alignment for the women.

“It’s interesting that it’s divided by gender when it just as easily could have been, ‘Why are your volleyball teams doing so well and your basketball teams are struggling,’ ” said Webster.

“In the cycle of a roster, these things are going to happen, especially coming out of a pandemic (with a double cohort).”

The women’s teams are loaded with veteran talent that is ready to win now, said Webster, and the men’s teams are on the way up.

And that includes the men’s basketball team that is winless this season and hasn’t won a provincial championship since 1986 under Don McCrae.

The numbers tell the feast-or-famine story of the 2022-23 OUA winter seasons for Waterloo teams.

Hockey

The women’s team is the No. 8ranked squad in Canada and tops the OUA West standings with a 104-6-0 record going into weekend games with Queen’s and Ontario Tech.

Head coach Shaun Reagan has assembled a strong squad that features a pair of outstanding transfers in defender Carley Olivier, a graduate student from Laurentian, and forward Leah Herrfort from Union College, an NCAA Division 1 program in Schenectady, N.Y.

Olivier and Herrfort both played for the Canadian team that won gold last week at the FISU World University Winter Games.

The team finished 13-3 in the abbreviated 2021-22 season but lost to Western in the first round of the playoffs.

“Our goal now is to have some playoff success,” said Webster.

The men’s team is at the bottom of the West Division with a 6-14-2 record and is a long shot to make the playoffs with five regular-season games remaining.

Still, as Webster points out, there have been moments, including a win over Windsor earlier this month, when the Lancers were ranked No. 8 in the country.

Two women’s teams, hockey and volleyball, are in the U Sports top-10 national rankings, and all three are hopeful of making post-season noise

Volleyball

The women’s team, coached by Richard Eddy, is the No. 7-ranked team in Canada and sits first in the 14-team OUA with a 12-2 record. The Warriors are on a six-match win streak and are a lock for the playoffs.

The team is led by fourth-year outside hitter Sarah Glynn and received a boost when setter and Cambridge native Claire Gagne returned as a graduate student rather than taking a run at playing in the pro ranks.

The men’s team has a 3-9 record and sits 10th in the 13-team OUA with eight matches remaining. On a bright note, the team has won three of its past four going into a pair of weekend clashes with lowly Trent (0-13). The Warriors are sitting six points behind eighth-place Queen’s, which currently holds down the final playoff spot with a 6-6 record.

Basketball

The women’s team doesn’t occupy a spot in the U Sports’ top-10 list, but it does have a share of first place in the OUA West with Guelph. The Warriors and Gryphons split a pair of weekend games, and both have 12-4 records with eight regular-season games to play.

Former head coach Craig Nickel landed quality players during his time with the program, and thirdyear head coach Jessica Roque has turned the team into a strong one. Roque led the Warriors to their first playoff appearance since 2008 last year and will attempt to improve on that in her second go-round.

The starting five of Vanessa Hughes, Summer Pahl, Kaitlyn Overeem, Maddy Adams and Beth Howlett are all in their fourth or fifth years, so the time is now for the current squad to make a run at an OUA title.

The men sit last in the OUA West with an 0-14 record and will miss the playoffs for the fourth straight year. The program hasn’t had a winning season since 2005-06, when Tom Kieswetter led them to a 13-9 record, and hasn’t won a playoff game since 2010.