The Guelph Gryphon field hockey team survived an early scare to defeat the Western Mustangs 4-1 and advance to tomorrow's OUA championship match against the Toronto Varsity Blues at 12pm.
 
The Mustangs opened the scoring at the eight minute mark as Jessica Crawford (Oakville, Ont.) tipped in a hard shot by Katelynn Roganowicz (Burlington, Ont.) past Guelph keeper Kaye McLagan (Mitchell, Ont.).??Guelph began to wake up as the half progressed, earning several short corners and forcing Western netminder Bethan Blackburn (Elora, Ont.) to turn aside a few good scoring chances. The Gryphons would finally find a solution to the Mustang defence just before the half ended, as OUA player of the year Brittany Seidler (Oliver, B.C.) slipped one in with under a minute to play before the horn sounded to end the half.
 
The second half opened up with Guelph continuing where they ended the first as they raced up field from the opening touch and were rewarded with an early goal in the first minute of the frame.  Erin Houle (Burlington, Ont.) buried the shot and put Guelph out front 2-1.
 
The onslaught continued, as Guelph maintained ball control and pressured Western, scoring their third goal after an exchange of end-to-end plays with Candice Hawksworth (Oakville, Ont.) beating Blackburn in a breakaway chance. Shortly after that, The Gryphons were awarded a penalty stroke and Seidler made no mistake, picking the top corner for her second goal of the match giving Guelph the 4-1 lead and eventual victory.
 
Guelph will now prepare for the Varsity Blues as they face-off in the OUA Championship match tomorrow at 12pm.  Western will play Waterloo for the OUA bronze and final berth at the CIS Championship hosted by Toronto.

Players of the game:
Guelph - Brittany Seidler
Western - Lauren Mackenzie