Western’s bid for its eighth Ontario University Athletics championship in 10 years fell short as the Waterloo Warriors upset the Mustangs 8-5 on Saturday.
Without Alex Bruce, one of the top female players on the team who was in Scotland competing at an international event, Western’s players were bumped up one spot in the head-to-heads and without a top doubles player.
After defeating York 12-1 in the Ontario University Athletics semifinals, in what coach Rob Fowler described as “pretty straight forward” without “real surprises”, Western had set itself up nicely in the OUA final against Waterloo.
Waterloo, which defeated Toronto in the semifinals, won the title and gave Western everything they could muster.
“Some of the matches could have gone either way, but overall, they played better than us almost from the start,” Fowler said. “Not having Alex Bruce around really hurt us. Her two (probable) wins would have put us over the top and probably would have given us a couple other wins by pushing other people back in our lineup.”
Full Western results are available at www.westernmustangs.ca.