The Queen’s Lady Gaels are off to Wolfville, N.S., for the U-Sport Canadian University Rugby championships.
Dan Valley’s club will play St. Francis Xavier in a quarter-final contest on Thursday afternoon.
“Our preparation has been great leading up to this tournament,” Sophie De Goede said.
The second-year, two-sport athlete from Victoria, B.C., was named Ontario’s Most Valuable Player. De Goede also plays for the basketball Gaels.
“I wouldn’t have won the award without my teammates,” De Goede said. “They’re a huge part of my success. They feed me the ball, and fortunately, I’m able to find the end zone. It truly is a team award.”
The Gaels enter the U-Sport championships as the seventh seed. St. FX is ranked number two. They met earlier this month for some exhibition matches and Queen’s came out on top in both games, 30-0 and 28-22.
“They were good matches,” said Gaels fullback Nadia Popov.
“But take note, they were exhibition games,” Popov added. ” I expect the X-Women to show us something different this Thursday. We’ve been building towards the nationals and feel we’re ready to go. We’re not going to Acadia to lose. We’re going there to win three straight games and come home with a championship banner.”
The Ottawa Gee Gee’s, the defending champs, are ranked number one for the tournament. They are followed by St. Francis Xavier, Calgary, Guelph, Victoria, Laval, Queen’s and the host team, the Acadia Axewomen.
The championship game is scheduled for Sunday at 1 pm.