GUELPH, Ont. – The 2024-25 OUA women's hockey season is upon us, with the Guelph Gryphons set to drop the puck on their regular season schedule this Friday (Oct. 11) on the road in Oshawa against the Ontario Tech Ridgebacks. The home opener for the Gryphons will take place on Oct. 24, when they host the York Lions.
The 2024-25 OUA women's hockey season will see the Ottawa Gee-Gees and Carleton Ravens joining the conference to make up the 14-team league. The teams will broken into two divisions of seven teams, with the Gryphons competing in the OUA West. The regular season will consist of a 26-game schedule with each team playing each other home-and-away. The playoff format will see a change as a play-in game will be used to determine the final playoff spot in each division, pitting the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds against each other in a play-in game. After the play-in game, both divisions will see a pair of quarterfinal matchups between the No. 1 seed & the play-in winner and the No. 2 & No. 3 seeds in a best-of-three series. The winners will cross-over and play a team from the opposite division in the semifinals, also in a best-of-three series. The OUA women's hockey champion will then be crowned in a single-game McCaw Cup final taking place on Saturday, March 15, 2025. The national championship tournament will take place in Elmira at the Woolwich Memorial Centre (March 20-23, 2025), with the University of Waterloo Warriors serving as the hosts of the 2025 U SPORTS Women's Hockey Championships.
The Gryphons will look to keep their streak of 33 straight seasons with a postseason appearance in tact as they will the reigning OUA Coach of the Year in
Katie Mora. "We welcome a big recruiting class this season and are excited for the opportunity for a new group of Gryphon athletes to start leaving their legacy," says head coach
Katie Mora, who led the Gryphons to a program-record 23 wins during the regular season in 2023-24. "We have a strong leadership group in our returning players, and overall, as a team, we feel like this is a competitive group, which should translate into the ability to win some more puck battles both in the corners as well as in front of the net."
Gryphon Forwards
With plenty of fresh faces added to this year's team, a new-look Gryphons forward group is set to take shape for the upcoming season.
Jaime Magoffin is the leader on the team and will wear the 'C' as the newest team captain for the Gryphons women's hockey program. The 5-foot-7 forward from Woodstock has become one of the top forwards in the OUA, tallying 22 points and scoring 7 goals last season. Fourth-year forward
Katherine Heard (Arva, ON) returns looking to build upon her breakout 2023-24 season. The sociology major scored 6 goals, including a team high 4 power play goals, and racked up 16 points last season and has been named one of the team's alternate captains for 2024-25.
Maeve Sutherland-Case (Hamilton, ON) enters her third-year with the team and has established herself as one of the team's most reliable and productive players on the roster. The six-foot animal biology major scored 6 goals and added 6 assists during the 2023-24 regular season.
Chihiro Suzuki (Yokohama, Japan) brings a wealth of experience, both at the OUA level as well as internationally, and scored a career-high 5 goals last season. Suzuki represented Team Japan at the FISU games and at the IIHF World Championships in 2023. Incoming rookie
Sarah Callaghan (Hammonds Plains, NS) is poised to make an immediate impact after showcasing some offensive play-making ability during the preseason.
Gryphon Defence
The Gryphons return an experienced group at the blueline, with Guelph coming off of a stellar 2023-24 season defensively where they conceded the fewest amount of goal (34) in the OUA last season. U SPORTS All-Rookie Team member
Reese Coffey (Thunder Bay, ON) is coming off an outstanding first-year with the Gryphons a season ago. Coffey, a molecular biology & genetics major, suited up in 27 of the 28 regular season games while adding 14 points (4 goals, 10 assists) from the blueline.
Meaghan Chittick, a population medicine major from Woodstock, ON, returns for her senior season and has been named an alternate captain for 2024-25. Chittick helped lead the way defensively a season ago, while also chipping in offensively with 7 points (2 goals, 5 assists). Incoming rookie
Madeline Min (London, ON) impressed during the preseason, with the biomedical science major poised to make an immediate impact on the Gryphon blueline in 2024-25.
Gryphon Goalies
Returning for her fourth season in net for the Gryphons is standout goalie,
Martina Fedel. The U SPORTS First-Team All-Canadian and University of Guelph Athlete of the Year will try to repeat her sensational 2023-24 season, which saw her lead the OUA in goals against average (1.03) and save percentage (.951%) while winning 15 of her 19 starts, helping the Trento, Italy native become the second player in program history to be named OUA Goaltender of the Year.
Sophie Helfenstein (Ajax, ON) is back for a second-year after an impressive rookie campaign backing up Fedel. The molecular biology and genetics major started 9 games last season and won 8 of them, posting a 1.11 GAA and .943 save percentage. Incoming rookie
Alysse Wilkinson (Ottawa, ON) joins the Gryphons from the Ottawa Sens.
The Gryphons women's hockey team officially drops the puck on the new season at 7pm on Friday, October 11 at Ontario Tech University in Oshawa, with the game streamed live online at
www.oua.tv. The Gryphons will open the 2024-25 season with four consecutive road games (Oct. 11 at Ontario Tech, Oct. 12 at Queen's, Oct. 18 at Carleton and Oct. 19 at Ottawa) before returning to the Gryphon Centre Arena for their home opener on Thursday, October 24 versus the York Lions.
