CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. – Wednesday afternoon (Oct. 30) in Charlottetown, the Guelph Gryphons women's rugby team saw their national championship dreams to come an end as they fell to the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees, 17-12, in a tightly-contested quarterfinal matchup at the 2024 U SPORTS Women's Rugby Championship.
 
The Gryphons would get off to good start, taking advantage of play in the Ottawa end as Brooklynn Feasby was able to drive in from close distance to score the opening try of the game in the 10th minute to give Guelph the early 7-0 lead. It would be the stout Gryphon defence that would be story in the half as they came up with multiple stops preventing the Gee-Gees from scoring. Ottawa would finally manage to break through in the 35th minute, trimming the deficit to 7-5 at halftime.
 
The start of the second half would not go the way of the Gryphons as the Gee-Gees would score in the 39th minute to take the lead and would add another try four minutes later to go ahead 17-7. The Gryphons would quickly respond two minutes later, pushing the pace up the field as an outstanding pass from Taylor McKnight found Abby Auger who split both Ottawa defenders and ran it in for the try to trim the Ottawa lead down to 17-12. Guelph would continue push for the tie throughout the half but were unable to solve the Ottawa defence in a game where points were hard to come by. In the 70th minute with the deficit still at five, the Gryphons would make their final push as they would get it towards the Gee-Gees' goal line looking for a repeat of the OUA Championship game and scoring a try to tie it up, but a knock-on in the passage of play would see them turn the ball over and ending their hopes of a national championship.
 
The loss sees the Gryphons move to the consolation bracket as they will play again on Friday afternoon at 4pm (ET) in Charlottetown against the hosts, UPEI Panthers in the consolation semifinal. The Ottawa Gee-Gees will face the UBC Thunderbirds in the national semifinals on Friday afternoon.