PETERBOROUGH, Ont. - The Laurier Golden Hawks are through to the OUA women's lacrosse semifinals after holding off the Western Mustangs for a 10-8 victory in their opening game of the 2026 OUA championship at Justin Chiu Stadium.

Laurier established control early, scoring four times in the opening quarter and adding three more in the second to build a 7-3 halftime advantage.

After Western's Georgia Bordigion opened the scoring just over two minutes into the game, Laurier responded with three consecutive goals from Tori Nascimento, Marissa Malow and Ali Hanlon to take a 3-1 lead.

Olivia Bladon cut the deficit to one before Riley Marwick restored Laurier's two-goal advantage with 57 seconds remaining in the quarter.

Nascimento added her second of the game less than two minutes into the second quarter before Marwick made it 6-2, scoring off an assist from Megan McGrath.

Nascimento completed her hat trick with 2:01 remaining in the half, giving the Golden Hawks their largest lead of the game at 7-2. 

Bladon scored with seven seconds remaining to send Western into halftime trailing by four.

The scoring slowed considerably in the third quarter, despite Western outshooting Laurier 9-1. Bordigion scored the Mustangs' lone goal of the quarter before Marwick answered with her third of the game to give the Golden Hawks an 8-4 advantage heading into the fourth.

Western made its push in the final quarter.

Reese Wilkins scored less than two minutes in to pull the Mustangs within three, but Delaney Keen answered for Laurier at the 10:45 mark with what stood as the game-winning goal.

Bordigion and Rylan Weatherdon then scored less than two minutes apart to cut Laurier's advantage to 9-7.

Nascimento provided the Golden Hawks with some breathing room with 6:17 remaining, scoring her fourth goal of the game to make it 10-7. 

Weatherdon answered with just over two minutes left, but Laurier shut the door from there.

The win sends Laurier into Saturday's OUA semifinal against the Queen's Gaels, who routed the McMaster Marauders 25-0 in their championship opener.

Laurier and Queen's will meet at 5 p.m. at Justin Chiu Stadium, with the winner advancing to Sunday's OUA gold medal game.

The Golden Hawks are in pursuit of their first OUA championship since 2010 and ninth provincial title in program history.