GUELPH, Ont. - In sports, there are days where no matter how much effort, how much passion, or how much focus you put into a match, it just isn't your day. Unfortunately for the Guelph Gryphons Women's soccer team, that was the case in their OUA quarter-final match against the York Lions Sunday afternoon at the Gryphon Soccer Complex. Despite their strong performance, and tremendous effort in the latter stages, the Gryphons ultimately fell 1-0 to the Lions in extra time.

With overcast skies and the wind gusting up to 50km/h the conditions on the field were not favourable for either squad during the game. Throughout the match, both teams did their best to adapt to the weather, but it did create issues for both sides as they tried to create opportunities. 

During the first 90 minutes of the match, the Gryphons came up with a couple of good scoring chances, but were unable to break through. Meanwhile in their own end, goalkeeper Brooke Davidson made arguably the nicest save of the game late in the first-half when she was able to deflect a York shot just over the crossbar.

In the second-half, the Gryphon's defence continued to stand tall as they tried to get on the board. Holding the Lions off the scoresheet in the second 45-minutes, Guelph did their best to find the first goal of the game. However, as the second-half came to a close the score remained 0-0, meaning the Gryphons and Lions were off to extra-time.

With the first 15-minutes of extra time nearly up, that is when York was able to score the breakthrough goal. Playing in the 110th minute, York's Jotam Chouhan struck the ball from the Gryphon's side of midfield, and with the wind, the ball carried all the way to the back of the Guelph goal.

With only 15 minutes left for the Gryphons to try and find the equalizer, they immediately made that their focus after falling behind. Twice in the final five minutes of extra-time, the Gryphons generated tremendous scoring chances, but the first one was snuffed out by a beautiful save from Lion's goalkeeper Danitza Indacochea, and on the second one, the ball just escaped the boot of Jacqueline Madogo who was nearly in all alone on the York keeper.

In the end, the Lions managed to hold on and come away with a 1-0 victory over the Gryphons, sending York to the Final Four.

"I think today showed you how tight the margins are between the two teams," said Gryphon's head coach Shayne Campbell. "It's a really tight division and it's very difficult to win in. Unfortunately, a wonder-strike beat us today. It was a wonderful strike, and you just have to tip your hat."

"I'm really proud of the girls," he said. "The season that they have had shows the consistency in the program. This one will hurt for a little bit, but then we'll get right back at it and start looking ahead to see what we can do to make sure we get back here against next season."