PETERBOROUGH, Ont. - The Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks women's lacrosse team captured its first Ontario University Athletics medal since 2018 on Sunday, earning silver after a 16-3 loss to the Trent Excalibur in the Patterson Cup gold-medal game.
The silver-medal finish capped an impressive championship weekend for the sixth-seeded Golden Hawks, who exceeded expectations to reach the conference final and return the program to the OUA podium for the first time in eight years.
"If you asked me if we'd be here from the regular season, I would tell you we were crazy," said Laurier midfielder and OUA all-star
Tori Nascimento. "But I believed in this team ever since the beginning and we knew if we put our heads down and worked hard for it, we'd get what we deserved. I'm proud of us."
Trent retained the Patterson Cup for a second consecutive season, taking control early in Sunday's championship game. The Excalibur scored six goals in the opening quarter and added four more in the second to carry a 10-0 lead into halftime.
Laurier generated nine shots in the opening 30 minutes but was unable to solve Trent goalkeeper Sav Musto.
The Excalibur extended their advantage in the third quarter before
Delaney Keen put the Golden Hawks on the board with 3:05 remaining in the frame.
Despite the deficit, Laurier continued to battle until the final whistle. The Hawks added a pair of shorthanded goals in the fourth quarter, with Teneike Gedge scoring off assists from
Marissa Malow and
Jace Cormier before
Kate Ferguson scored 17 seconds later.
While Sunday's result ended Laurier's championship aspirations, co-head coach Tamara Grant said the weekend was a statement from a program determined to re-establish itself among the OUA's best.
"I think all it does is it puts Laurier back on the map with showing the strength of our program," Grant said. "When you can go into a weekend and start in sixth and really be those underdogs and show what the program has, it shows our level of grit, determination, and commitment from these athletes."
That underdog mentality became a rallying cry throughout the tournament.
"When we went into our final game, our quote was, 'the underdogs got to eat,'" Grant said. "I think we were underestimated all weekend and game after game they showed up and showed out."
Nascimento echoed those sentiments, crediting the team's belief in one another for its breakthrough performance.
"It was just our belief that we had in each other," she said. "Most of us knew it was our last season, so we wanted to go out with a bang. We put our heads down this week and worked so hard because we knew we had that potential."
The championship weekend also saw Nascimento earn OUA all-star recognition for a second consecutive season. Grant praised the veteran attacker's impact on the program after extending her collegiate career following four years at NCAA Division I St. Bonaventure.
"She still wanted to extend her career and give back to the program, share her knowledge and her expertise," Grant said. "I'm super glad it didn't end with just four years down south, that she came and spent some time with us and really made a mark as a Golden Hawk."
For Nascimento, finishing her OUA career with a silver medal made the moment even more meaningful.
"I'm just so thankful that I got an extra two years to play the sport that I love," she said. "To finish it like this, I couldn't ask for any better outcome."
